India: ‘Cockroach’ leaders vow new protests after release

India on Sunday rejected remarks by the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that called on Indian authorities to immediately release “arbitrarily detained” people during Saturday’s protest.

“We are concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists, before and during today’s large-scale demonstrations in Delhi,” the OHCHR said in a statement on Saturday.

“All those arbitrarily detained must be immediately and unconditionally released.”

India’s Foreign Ministry called the UN office’s concerns “unwarranted” and said that they “constitute an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs” of the country.

“India is the world’s largest democracy, where the right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed by our Constitution and safeguarded by robust institutions, an independent judiciary and a free media,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

“As in every democracy, Indian citizens exercise this right subject to the maintenance of public order and safety. Our law enforcement authorities act strictly in accordance with the law, and our courts remain available to all for the redressal of any grievances.”

The ministry went on to accuse the UN human rights agency of having an “approach of extreme selectivity” on public positions.

The ministry said it had noted that “violent responses to protests” in India’s neighborhood have gone “uncommented, as indeed have law enforcement actions in its own vicinity.”

The statement accused the OHCHR of “double standards” which it continued to say “only erode the credibility” of the body and “contribute to the loss of faith in multilateralism.”