Oppn slams govt over India's UNHRC move on China's Xinjiang

NEW DELHI: Opposition leaders on Friday criticised the government for abstaining from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council on holding a debate on the human rights situation in China’s restive Xinjiang region, saying India should speak for what is right and should not be afraid of its neighbour.

Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari wondered why there was ''so much diffidence on China''.

''The Government of India will not agree to a Parliamentary debate on Chinese incursions. India will abstain at UNHRC on a resolution for debate on human rights in Xinjiang,'' he tweeted.

He alleged that the Ministry of External Affairs does not accord political clearance to Parliamentarians to visit Taiwan.

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale tweeted, ''Giving them our land and abstaining on holding them to account. What exactly is it that makes (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi so afraid of China?''

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi wanted to know from the prime minister the reason for India's decision ''to help China out in the UNHRC on the Uighur issue''.

''Is he so scared of offending (Chinese President) Xi Jingping (Jinping), whom he met 18 times, that India can’t speak for what is right?,'' he tweeted.

''From red eye to closed eye,'' tweeted Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena leader, in Hindi.

India on Thursday abstained from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council on holding a debate on the human rights situation in China’s restive Xinjiang region.

Human rights groups have been sounding the alarm over what is happening in the resource-rich north-western Chinese province for years, alleging that more than one million Uyghurs had been detained against their will in a large network of what Beijing calls ''re-education camps''.