Sushma's OIC visit diplomatic faux pas: Congress

Congress on Sunday slammed the Modi government for attending the meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) after it adopted a resolution against Jammu & Kashmir.

“The NDA government sold national integrity by participating in the OIC meeting,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said here.

He sought to know whether Prime Minister had deputed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the meeting only to oversee India being labelled a terrorist state and as an occupying force in Jammu and Kashmir.

Tewari said by attending the meeting of OIC as an observer, India granted legitimacy to the grouping whose statements it has been rejecting outright.

“You became a party to the OIC resolution,” the Congress spokesman said.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said Swaraj’s visit to Abu Dhabhi for the OIC meeting was a “diplomatic faux pas”.

“Did PM send our EAM to OIC Meeting for such unacceptable & blasphemous accusations to be hurled at India,” Surjewala asked.

In a late night statement, the External Affairs Ministry asserted that J&K is an “integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India”.

But unlike previous statements, India did not say that OIC has no locus standi, and that India rejected the resolution adopted at the meeting.

The Modi government had sought to project the invitation a "welcome recognition" of the presence of 185 million Muslims in India and of their contribution to its pluralistic ethos, and of India's contribution to the Islamic world.