NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday categorically rejected a ‘farcical’ motion introduced in Pakistan’s National Assembly opposing the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir. ‘ We firmly reject the absurd resolution approved by the National Assembly of Pakistan on the topic of the delimitation exercise in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,’ the Foreign Ministry stated in a statement.
‘Pakistan has no locus standi to pronounce on or intervene in matters that are domestic to India, including Indian regions under Pakistan’s unlawful and coercive occupation,’ it stated. ‘ The whole area of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has been, is, and shall always remain an integral part of India,’ the administration declared, calling the resolution voted by the Pakistan National Assembly ‘farcical’.
‘The delimitation process in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is a democratic activity based on significant stakeholder engagement and involvement,’ said Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry. Jammu and Kashmir would have five parliamentary seats, namely Baramulla, Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri, Udhampur, and Jammu, per the recent delimitation decision.
India has previously lambasted the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for its ‘unwarranted’ comments on the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir and asked it to stop carrying out its ‘communal agenda’ at the behest of one nation, an apparent reference to Pakistan.
MEA spokeswoman Arindam Bagchi stated on Monday that India ‘categorically rejected’ the OIC’s statements criticizing New Delhi over the Jammu and Kashmir delimitation exercise. ‘ We are disappointed that the OIC secretariat has made unjustified comments on India’s domestic affairs,’ Bagchi added. ‘As in the past, the Government of India unequivocally rejects the OIC secretariat’s allegations about Jammu and Kashmir, which is an essential and inalienable part of India’.
Bagchi was replying to media inquiries about the OIC statement on the Jammu and Kashmir delimitation exercise. ‘The OIC should desist from pursuing its divisive agenda in relation to India at the request of a single nation’, he added. India has chastised the OIC for its remarks on Jammu and Kashmir. In a previous statement, the OIC’s general secretariat voiced ‘grave concern over India’s plans to alter the electoral borders’ of Jammu and Kashmir, citing a violation of the Kashmiri people’s rights.
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