Raising issues of Kashmir and status of minorities ‘deplorable’, India tells U.N.

India on Thursday said raising the issues of Kashmir and the status of minorities by the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on minority issues and freedom of religion was “deplorable”. The strong response from the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava, came soon after the experts connected the Indian policy on Kashmir with the status of religious minorities in India and said they could face discrimination in “employment and land ownership”. “It is deplorable that the SRs after sharing their questionnaire on February 10 did not even wait for our response. Instead, they chose to release their inaccurate assumptions to the media. The press release has also been deliberately timed to coincide with the visit of a group of Ambassadors to Jammu and Kashmir,” said Mr. Srivastava.