India on Thursday criticized the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for inviting Kashmiri separatist leader and chairman of All Party Hurriyat Conference for its council of foreign ministers meeting in Islamabad. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that India takes such actions “very seriously” which are aimed directly at subverting India’s “unity and violating our sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also took a snide at Pakistan over the issue and said OIC should not allow vested interests to exploit the platform for challenging India’s integrity He said India does not accept OIC encouraging the actors and organisations engaged in terrorism and anti-India activities.
“We have seen media reports in India regarding the invitation extended by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretariat general to the chairman of All-party Hurriyat conference to attend the forthcoming 48th session of the OIC Council of foreign ministers in Islamabad on March 22-23,” said Bagchi at the weekly MEA media briefing.
He stated, “The government of India take very seriously such actions which are aimed directly at subverting Indian unity and violating our sovereignty and territorial integrity. India calls upon the OIC to refrain from allowing the vested interest to exploit its platform for comments on Indian internal affairs.”
Taking another veiled dig at Pakistan, Bagchi said it is “highly unfortunate” that OIC continues to be “guided by the single member’s political agenda rather than focusing on other important developing activities”.
He further said that India has called upon the OIC multiple times to refrain from letting vested interests comment on India’s internal affairs through its platform. “We have repeatedly called upon the OIC to refrain from allowing vested interests to exploit its platform for comments on Indian internal affairs,” said Bagchi.
