Decision to abstain from Lanka vote taken at political level: Foreign Secretary

India abstained as it was "extremely intrusive" and that New Delhi has always been against any country-specific resolution in UNHRC, says Sujatha Singh

India's decision to abstain from voting on the US-sponsored resolution on alleged war crimes by Sri Lanka at the UNHRC was taken at the "political" level for the welfare of the Tamils in that country, the External Affairs Ministry said today.

"Any decision relating to foreign policy is a political decision, is it not? And no official will take a decision without taking a political sign off," Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh told PTI.

Singh was replying to a question about Finance Minister P Chidambaram's remarks last week that the decision of abstention could have been taken by officials in the External Affairs Ministry.

Expressing unhappiness, Chidambaram had further said, "Twenty three countries had supported it and we also should have supported even if it was a watered down one."

The Foreign Secretary said India abstained from voting on the resolution as it was "extremely intrusive" and that New Delhi has always been against any country-specific resolution in UNHRC.

The resolution, which sought an international inquiry into alleged war crimes in the last stages of conflict with the LTTE in 2009, was adopted by 23 votes. India, along with 11 other countries, abstained from voting while 12 other countries including Russia, China and Pakistan opposed the resolution.

"The last two resolutions called upon Sri Lankan government to look into the issue and to work toward reconciliation. This year the resolution was extremely intrusive. It proposed an international mechanism, an open ended international mechanism, and in our mind we do not want such an intrusive mechanism," she said.