Doval walks out of SCO meet over fictitious Pakistan map
Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 15
On a day when the Kashmir issue was raised at two international forums, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval walked out of a virtual meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) NSAs after Pakistan’s representative sat before a “new” political map that showed Kashmir and Junagadh as part of its territory.
Russia slams Pak act
This is a violation of the SCO Charter. The Russian side tried hard to persuade Pakistan not to do so. Its NSA Nikolai Patrushev conveyed that Russia didn’t support what Pakistan had done. Moscow hoped that Pak’s provocative act wouldn’t affect India’s participation in SCO and impact Patrushev’s rapport with NSA Doval, sources said.
Doval first consulted with the host, in this case the Russian NSA, before walking out of the conference. Later, the Ministry of External Affairs said the display of the map was “a blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting”.
“After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture,” admitted MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava. It was claimed that India had also raised objections to the display of Pakistan’s new political map in the background during a test call three days back.
After Doval walked out, the meeting carried on with the “new map” of Pakistan which was a constant feature behind its NSA at the videoconference.
The MEA said the Pakistani NSA had “deliberately projected a fictitious map”.
In Geneva, UN Human Right Council chief Michelle Bachelet’s observations on Kashmir were sought to be rebutted by diplomat Indra Mani Pandey, who stated people in the UT of J&K had been enjoying the same fundamental rights as people in the rest of country ever since changes were rung in on August 5 last year.
He also sought a sympathetic view because of the “enormity of the challenges that India faces due to a large and very diverse population of 1.3 billion” and wanted the HRC to act “as our partner in a cooperative and constructive spirit in our endeavour to secure all basic human rights for our people”.
Bachelot, a two-time President of Chile and a victim of torture by its army, had expressed concerns over continued arbitrary detention of many persons.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan seem to have made up as Pakistan delivered the statement on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC). Its envoy Khalil Hashmi promptly raised the issue of J&K on behalf of the OIC.
