India had urged UN member states’ to selectively condemn attacks based on Abrahamic religions, keeping aside other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. On the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, Indian diplomat Ashish Sharma reiterated ‘selectivity’ ith which the world can never truly nurture a peaceful culture.
Addressing the point “Culture of Peace”, the first Secretary stated, “Why is this selectivity? Overall, Hinduism has more than 1.2 billion, Buddhism has more 535 million, and Sikhism around 30 million followers. It is time that attacks against these religions are also added to earlier list of the three Abrahamic religions. And as long as such selectivity exists, the world can never truly foster a culture of peace.”
The First Secretary, also mentioned various examples of attacks. “The shattering of the iconic Bamyan Buddha by fundamentalists, the terrorsit bombing of the SIkh Gurudwara in Afghanistan where 25 worshippers were killed and the destruction of the Hindu and Buddhist temples and minority cleansing of these religions by countries, calls for condemning such acts against these religions also. But the current Member States refuse to speak of these religions in the same breath as the first three “Abrahamic” religions.”
The Indian diplomat garnered their attention to the other religions in India. He said, “This August body fails to acknowledge the rise of hatred and violence against Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism also.”
Ashish, spoke a lot of India’s historic traditions. He said, “India is not just the birth place of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, but is also the land where the teachings of Islam, Judaism, Christanity and Zoroastrianism have taken strong root and where Sufi tardition of Islam has flourished. Today, every one of the world’s major religions has a home in India. The great Indian philosopher, Swami Vivekanada said – we believe not only in universal toleration but accept all religions as true.”
In the earlier sessions, UN resolutions and UN agencies have ruled out any form of violence pertaining to specific religions, which includes Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and Christianophobia, amid which there is a feeling that other minorties are not subjected to such pressure and attacks.
- Melukote – Vairamudi Festival – 2022
- Bengaluru metro to function on weekdays, closed on weekends from July 1
- India provides reciprocal exemption of EU Digital COVID Certificate to include Covishield, Covaxin
- PM Modi will address the Digital India beneficiaries at 11 am tomorrow
- Pvt hospitals will obtain Covid vaccine doses via CoWIN starting from July 1
