India slams UN for failing to acknowledge 'growing hatred' against Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism

Attacks against these religions should be added to the list of the three Abrahamic religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- when resolutions are passed, said India

India has questioned the “selectivity” practised by the United Nations, alleging that the international organization has failed to acknowledge the rise in hatred and violence against Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism although it had been condemning attacks against Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

India stated that it firmly condemned “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Christian acts”. “However, (the) UN resolutions on such important issues speak only of these three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) together. This august body (UN General Assembly) fails to acknowledge the rise of hatred and violence against Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism also,” Ashish Sharma, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York, said.

Sharma, who joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 2009, was delivering the statement on behalf of the Government of India at a conclave on “Culture of Peace” at the UNGA in New York on Wednesday.

“Why is this selectivity? Overall, Hinduism has more than 1.2 billion, Buddhism has more 535 million, and Sikhism around 30 million followers. It is time that attacks against these religions are also added to the earlier list of the three Abrahamic religions when such resolutions are passed (by the UN),” he said, adding that the culture of peace cannot be only for Abrahamic religions. "As long as such selectivity exists, the world can never truly foster a culture of peace,” Sharma said.

New Delhi cited the example of the demolition of the 6th century Buddha statues in Bamiyan in Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001. It also referred to the killing of Sikhs in an attack on a Gurdwara in Kabul on March 26 this year as well as the “destruction of Hindu and Buddhist temples and minority cleansing” in some countries.

“The United Nations is not a body which should take sides when it comes to religion. If we are indeed selective, we will only end up proving Samuel Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’. What we are trying to build here is an ‘alliance of civilizations’, not set up a clash,” said the young diplomat representing India.

New Delhi also slammed Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), with regard to that the Imran Khan government's recent decision to transfer the management and administrative control of the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib -- the final resting place of Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak. The management and maintenance of the Gurdwara were handed over from the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (PSGPC), a body run by the minority Sikh community, to the administrative control of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a non-Sikh body.

India alleged that Pakistan had already violated the resolution on Culture of Peace passed last year by the UNGA, by arbitrarily transferring the management of the holy shrine from a Sikh community body to the administrative control of a non-Sikh body. “This act goes against the Sikh religion and its preservation and protection. You will recall that this holy Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara finds mention in that earlier resolution. That resolution stands violated by Pakistan,” Sharma said at the UN General Assembly.