Subramanian Swamy to initiate a defamation suit against UN Under-Secretary-General for attributing false statements to him in a press release

BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha Dr. Subramanian Swamy will initiate a defamation suit against UN Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng for slandering him in a press release.  The press release by the UN Under-Secretary-General in New York had claimed that Dr. Swamy had said in an interview to a Pakistani owned TV channel that Muslims are not equal to Hindus in Indian Constitution. “This is a blatant lie so I will take steps to sue him in court”, Swamy tweeted.

On May 19th, Subramanian Swamy wrote to the Foreign Affairs Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla to ask India’s United Nations (UN) Permanent Representative to seek UN Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng’s apology or clarification on the wrong and slanderous statements made against him in the official press release.

The UN Press Release has refered to a Pakistani owned TV Channel VICE for its claims on Subramanian Swamy. The TV channel based in Canada was caught peddling fake news on several previous occasion. Swamy has said that he has not given any such statements either to any TV channel or in the Parliament.

In his letter to the Foreign Secretary, Swamy wrote “There is no such statement of mine either in Parliament while the CAA was being debated, nor in any interview, I have given anywhere”. He also pointed out that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also made a similar statement against him citing the VICE TV channel, which never produced the full unedited video of the interview.

He further wrote, “This Press Release was issued on May 18, 2020. While the statement is a general attack on the Indian Government arising from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which the Parliament passed in early December 2019, in the said Press release there is a paragraph relating to me and my alleged statement that Muslims are not equal to other citizens of India, and the Under-Secretary General’s condemnation of that alleged statement.”. The United Nations press release issued by the Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng was enclosed with Swamy’s letter.

“Now once again the same doctored material is being relied on, without due diligence, by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. This is serious defamation and conduct unbecoming of a United National official. I propose therefore to take legal action according to Indian Law and I am examining the case law by which the Under-Secretary-General Mr.Dieng may be summoned as an accused under Indian law to face this criminal complaint in an Indian Court.”, he writes.

“Our Permanent Representative may be asked to bring this to the Under-Secretary-General and asked if he can issue a correction and an apology without any having to send a Court Notice. If your Ministry can take this step, and the matter concluded without a messy Court battle for the Under-Secretary-General, it can avoid some diplomatic embarrassment,” said Swamy in the letter to Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.