The Congress on Thursday said India would not interfere in Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs but it unambiguously condemned human rights violations in that country.
Addressing presspersons here, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said it “is a calibrated middle-of-the-road stand. The stand is simple, we do not interfere in domestic affairs of a country, especially our neighbour, a valuable ally like Sri Lanka.”
Mr. Singhvi was reacting to the U.S. plans to move a new resolution against Sri Lanka in the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council for its alleged war crimes.
“Without hesitation, we condemn human rights violations, especially of the serious kind. I think it is a nuanced and balanced approach of the Indian government,” he said.
Asked about the delay in passing the anti-rape law due to a lack of consensus in the Cabinet, Mr. Singhvi said: “There is bound to be a level of disagreement on many specific issues but things are moving far faster than before.” The government’s time frame for now was telescoped and conviction in the December 2012 New Delhi gang rape case would happen in three to six months, he said.
Some of the suggestions of the Justice Verma Committee should be deliberated on. “We should not get carried away by a system where we end up perhaps with more laws and less enforcement,” he said.
