Living in La La Land: India rebukes Pak over Kashmir propaganda claims at UN

India delivered a sharp rebuttal to Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN Human Rights Council, accusing Islamabad of peddling propaganda detached from ground realities in Jammu and Kashmir and quipping that Pakistan must be living in “La La Land” if it doubts development in the Union Territory.

Speaking during the high-level segment of the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, India’s First Secretary Anupama Singh exercised New Delhi’s right of reply after Pakistan and the OIC raised the Kashmir issue.

“India is compelled to exercise its right of reply. We categorically reject these allegations,” Singh said, accusing the OIC of “parroting Pakistan’s propaganda” and allowing itself to be reduced to “an echo chamber for that country’s political compulsions.”

She said Pakistan’s narrative “reeks of envy” and asserted that the only unresolved issue was Pakistan’s occupation of Indian territory. “We call upon Pakistan to vacate the areas under its forcible occupation,” she said.

Underscoring New Delhi’s development push in the region, Singh cited electoral participation and infrastructure projects as evidence of normalisation.

“The record voter turnout in general and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir testifies that its people have rejected the ideology of terrorism and violence propagated by Pakistan,” she said.

She then delivered the sharpest barb of the exchange: “If the Chenab Rail Bridge, the world’s highest railway bridge inaugurated in Jammu and Kashmir last year, is considered fake, then Pakistan must be living in ‘La La Land.”

Singh added that Pakistan’s disbelief might stem from the scale of development spending in the region.

“Or perhaps it finds it unbelievable that the developmental budget of Jammu and Kashmir is more than double the recent bailout package it sought from the IMF,” she said.

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