India declined to speak at an informal session of the UN Security Council on safety of minorities in conflict when it was invited to take its turn on Aug. 29th. India was listed as a speaker at the informal consultation, but when Poland’s Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, who was chairing the session, asked India to speak, the member of the Indian Mission who was present passed up the invitation.

According to the roster of speakers, India was to have followed Pakistan. The Pakistani delegate defended his treatment of minorities that had been criticised by Samuel Brownback, the US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Tariq Ahmad, a British Minister of State who is Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion, and Canada’s Permanent Representative Marc Andre Blanchard, as well as a Naveed Walter, the President of Human Rights Focus Pakistan, an NGO.

Unlike China and Russia, which in their responses hit back harshly against their Western critics, Pakistan’s rebuttal was mild given that the criticism came from the US and Britain.