United Nations:
The US Ambassador to the UNO, Kirkpatrick, has raised the issue of the “widespread denial of legal and social rights” of Untouchables in India. In a speech before a U.N. committee, announcing the differing standards of Third World and Communist countries in criticizing human rights violations in pro-Western countries, but overlooking them in others, the outspoken U. S. Cabinet member referred to the Untouchables as an example of this. India, exercising the right of reply, told the committee that it was “astonished” that she made the reference. T. C. A. Rangachari, a first secretary of the Indian Mission to the U.N., said that India had abolished untouchability. He likened Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s remarks to “philosophic convolutions” that “strain credibility and torture logic”.
(India Abroad, Dec 17, 1982)
