Delhi protests India’s internal matter, won’t comment: Rubio; calls UN experts an ‘oxymoron'

NEW DELHI: United States secretary of state Marco Rubio described the Delhi protests as India’s internal political matter, saying the US would not comment on an issue that was for the Indian people to decide and navigate. He also seemed to brush aside criticism by “UN experts” of the Indian crackdown as he called them an “oxymoron”.“It’s a domestic political matter.

I mean, I’m not going to get involved in their politics... this is a democracy. They have elections here, so I’m not going to opine on their domestic political matters,” said Rubio.“We have protests every day in US... obviously I’m not talking about riots, like what you’re seeing in Europe, where they’re vandalising and breaking into things and burning down buildings.

I’m not talking about that,” Rubio said.“But in many ways, the fact that people are out there expressing themselves — I’m not talking about India, in any country in the world — is the sign that this is a country where there’s political discourse and so forth and differences of opinion,” he said. On Tuesday, more than 20 UN human rights experts in Geneva had expressed alarm over what they described as a “repeatedly heavy-handed police response” to peaceful youth-led demonstrations in the national capital.

Key quotes

• “It’s a domestic political matter. I mean, I’m not going to get involved in their politics... this is a democracy. They have elections here, so I’m not going to opine on their domestic political matters,”

• “We have protests every day in US... obviously I’m not talking about riots, like what you’re seeing in Europe, where they’re vandalising and breaking into things and burning down buildings. I’m not talking about that,”

• “But in many ways, the fact that people are out there expressing themselves — I’m not talking about India, in any country in the world — is the sign that this is a country where there’s political discourse and so forth and differences of opinion,”

• “repeatedly heavy-handed police response”