US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday declined to comment on allegations of a crackdown on protesters in India, describing the issue as a domestic political matter in a democracy. Taking a swipe
at the United Nations human rights experts who flagged the alleged police excesses, Rubio also called them “oxymorons”.
Asked about the UN experts’ concerns over India’s handling of youth-led demonstrations, Rubio said Washington would not comment on the country’s internal political affairs. “Domestic political matter, this is a democracy, they have election here, we won’t opine on their domestic political matter. We have protests in US every day. The fact that protests are happening, that’s what happens in a democratic country. But we won’t comment on India’s domestic political matter,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News.
“Domestic political matter, this is a democracy, they have election here, wont opine on there domestic political matter. We have protests in US every day”,says Marco Rubio when asked about India protests
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— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) October 21, 2026
What India told the UN
Rubio’s comments came a day after India pushed back against criticism at the United Nations, warning against the use of unverified allegations and incomplete statistics to create a negative image of the country.
Barkha Tamrakar, Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, delivered India’s statement at the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on Tuesday. She stressed that engagement with international human rights mechanisms must be guided by dialogue, cooperation, transparency and non-selectivity.
“India engages with international human rights mechanisms, but such engagement must be based on dialogue, consultation, cooperation with non-selectivity and transparency as guiding principles,” Tamrakar said.
She also cautioned against presenting allegations as established findings, saying, “We call on delegations to cite the report faithfully, not to inflate a humanitarian communication into a verdict.”
India said it remained prepared to clarify specific, properly documented cases through established channels, but opposed what it described as attempts to portray the country negatively using unverified claims.
Tamrakar said India formally opposed any “attempt to convert unverified allegations, incomplete statistics or a report that contains no India country observation into a negative characterisation of the world’s largest democracy”.
New Delhi has also described earlier UN criticism of its handling of protests as “unwarranted” and an “unacceptable interference” in its internal affairs.
