NEW DELHI: Saudi Ambassador Faisal Al-Trad took strong note of India’s former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani’s controversial remarks and walked out of an international conference here on Saturday. Before doing so, Al-Trad walked up to President Pratibha Patil, who was present on the dais, to express his disagreement.
Addressing the International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Rule of Law, 2009, Jethmalani blamed the “Wahabi version” of Islam as the root cause of terrorism. He even went to the extent of saying that India had friendly relations with a country that supported the “Wahabism.”
Quickly distancing the government from the remarks of Jethmalani, Indian Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, said the views expressed by Jethmalani were not that of the government. Moily told the conference that terrorism cannot be attributed to any particular religion. Moily affirmed that respecting the pluralistic nature of the democratic republic has always been the top most priority — hence always irresponsible reactions to acts of terror were avoided.
Moily also rejected Jethmalani’s remarks on the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) by saying that India believes in the policy of non-alignment and its policy cannot be shaken by any provocation or threat.
Jethmalani had sharply attacked NAM and Panchsheel as evil and said India’s foreign policy establishment should be courageous to shun country’s relationships with its enemies.
“India and its foreign ministers must learn to reassess the doctrines of the past,” he said.
Responding to remarks of Jethmalani, Justice Awn S. Al-Khasawneh of the International Court of Justice asked him not to make sweeping statements about Islam.
