Pakistan demands Priyanka Chopra be 'denotified' as UN goodwill ambassador, slams actor for tweet after Balakot airstrikes

The Pakistan human rights ministry on Wednesday wrote to UNICEF over Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra’s position as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and said that her support for the Narendra Modi government’s “violations” in Kashmir warrants that she be “immediately denotified” from the post. Earlier in August, Chopra was engaged in a verbal argument with a Pakistani woman who accused the actor of hypocrisy, for her reaction to the Indian Air Force’s strike in Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack in February. In a letter addressed to Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s executive director, Pakistan’s minister of human rights Shireen Mazari, also referred to the Centre’s recent decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, which provided the restive state with a degree of autonomy and allowed it to have its own Constitution. However, the BJP-led government at the Centre scrapped the provision and imposed restrictions on communication and a curfew as a “preventive measure” against violence.

Referring to the Kashmir Valley as ‘Indian-occupied Kashmir’ or ‘IOK’ in her letter, Mazari said that with the abrogation of Article 370, the Modi government was in “violation of all international conventions that it is a signatory to, along with UNSC resolutions.” She added, “(The Modi government is also) conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims in IOK.” Mazari also mentioned the National Citizens’ Register, set to be implemented in Assam, which seeks to identify “infiltrators” from Bangladesh. She said, “The Modi government is also denying four million Indian Muslims their citizenship in Assam creating ‘detention centres’ akin to Nazi concentration camps.” Accusing the NDA government of a policy similar “to the Nazi doctrine of ethnic cleansing, racism, fascism, and genocide”, Mazari said that Chopra had “publicly endorsed the Indian government position and also supported the nuclear threat issued to Pakistan by the Indian Defence minister.” She added, “All this goes completely against the principles of peace and goodwill that Chopra is supposed to uphold as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace. Her jingoism and support for the violations by the Modi government of international conventions and UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, as well as support for war — including a nuclear war — undermines the credibility of the UN position to which she has been elevated.” “Unless she is removed immediately, the very idea of a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace becomes a mockery globally.” On 12 August, a video of Chopra being questioned by a Pakistani woman on her tweet to the IAF’s strikes in Pakistan’s Balakot went viral on social media. Chopra was speaking at a BeautyCon event in Los Angeles, when Ayesha Malik said that Chopra had “encouraged nuclear war against Pakistan” when she tweeted in support of the Indian Armed Forces.

Jai Hind #IndianArmedForces 🇮🇳 🙏🏽

— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) February 26, 2019

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In response, Chopra had said, “I have many, many friends from Pakistan and I am from India. War is not something I’m really fond of but I am patriotic, so I’m sorry if I hurt sentiments to people who do love me and have loved me.” “But I think that all of us have a, sort of, middle ground that we all have to walk. Just like you probably do as well. The way that you came at me right now… girl, don’t yell. We’re all here for love,” she added. With inputs from agencies