'Based on reports by god-forsaken, ignorant NGOs': India bins questions on slides in human rights

New Delhi: After The Hague, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faced queries from journalists in Oslo about the alleged violation of human rights in India, prompting a stern response from senior diplomat Sibi George, who said that people asked such questions after reading “one or two reports published by some god-forsaken, ignorant” non-governmental organisations.

A press conference held by New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Oslo after Modi’s meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Monday saw George, Secretary (West) at the Ministry of External Affairs, rejecting the allegations of slides in human rights and press freedom in India. “People have no understanding of the scale of India. They read one or two reports published by some god-forsaken, ignorant NGOs and then come and ask questions,” the senior Indian Foreign Service officer said.

He was replying to a question by Helle Lyng, who introduced herself as a commentator in the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen on X. Lyng asked why Norway should trust India. She also asked if India could “stop violation of human rights” in India and if the prime minister would take “critical questions” from the media in India.

“We are one sixth of the total population of the world, but not one sixth of the problems of the world. We have a Constitution, which guarantees the fundamental rights of the people,” George said, adding: “We have equal rights for the women of our country, which is very important.”

“We believe in equality, we believe in human rights. If anyone whose rights are violated, they have the right to go to court. We are proud to be a democracy,” said the senior diplomat.

“You asked me a question. Let me answer your question…Please don’t interrupt me…This is my press conference. When to answer, how to answer is my prerogative. Please don’t ask me to answer in a particular way,” George, visibly agitated, told Lyng, after she asked for answer to her question “straightaway”. He cited New Delhi’s role during the Covid-19 pandemic and during the conflicts while responding to the question about why Norway should trust India.

Lyng had earlier urged Modi to take some questions from the media after he and Støre made press statements following a meeting in Oslo on Monday. Modi, however, did not take the question and walked out of the room along with Støre.

“Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press of the world?” Helle Lyng, a journalist, was heard asking the prime minister as he was leaving the podium after making the media statement with his counterpart in Norway. “Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question. I was not expecting him to,” Lyng wrote on X later.

“Norway has the number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index, India is at 157th, competing with Palestine, the Emirates and Cuba,” she noted, apparently referring to the latest rankings released by Reporters sans Frontières.

A Dutch journalist in The Hague had also raised the issue during a briefing by George on the prime minister’s meeting with Rob Jetten, his counterpart in the Netherlands, on Saturday.

“In the Netherlands, there is a tradition that after such a visit, both prime ministers are available for questions. I wonder what the reason is that that is not the case today,” Ashwant Nandram, a journalist of De Volkskrant, had asked during the briefing by the MEA. He had also asked for New Delhi’s response to Jetten’s purported statement during his meeting with Modi that the Netherlands and the European Union were worried about reports on declining press freedom and curbs on the rights of Muslims and other minority communities in India.

There had not been any official confirmation about whether Jetten had indeed raised the issue during his meeting with Modi. George had not dismissed the claim of the journalist of De Volkskrant that the prime minister of the Netherlands had raised the issue with his guest from India. The senior diplomat had, however, strongly dismissed the allegation about the curbs on the rights of the minority communities in India.