India on Monday asked Pakistan to “abandon” its Kashmir dream with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj letting it be known from the United Nations forum that terror tactics will just not work and Jammu & Kashmir will always remain an integral part of India.
Deriding Islamabad’s belief that it can spirit away territory it covets by aiding and abetting terrorism, Sushma said, “My firm advice to Pakistan is: abandon this dream. let me state unequivocally that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so.”
In what was a stinging response to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s diatribe at the UN General Assembly last week, Sushma sought to expose Islamabad’s complicity in cross-border terrorism with the Uri attack being the latest in a long list, commenting, “History proves that those who seed extremist ideologies reap a bitter harvest.”
In a detailed critique on the menace of terrorism, Sushma, without explicitly naming Pakistan, commented, “In our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it. To shelter terrorists has become their calling card. We must identify these nations and hold them to account.”
“These nations, in which UN designated terrorists roam freely, lead processions and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, are as culpable as the very terrorists they harbour. Such countries should have no place in the comity of nations,” she said, in a clear reference to the free hand that laskhar-e-Tayyeba chief Hafiz Saeed continues to enjoy in Pakistan.
She rejected the Pakistani contention that India had set pre-conditions for talks by listing the various friendly moves including Modi’s visit to lahore while on way home from Kabul, saying, “We have in fact attempted a paradigm of friendship in the last two years which is without precedent.”
All that India got from Pakistan in return for the series of friendly overtures by the Narendra Modi Government right from the time of its inauguration was attacks like the ones in Pathankot and Uri, she said, pointing out that the confession of terrorist Bahadur Ali is “a living proof of Pakistan’s complicity in cross-border terror”.
“So let us ask the real question: who finances these terrorists, who arms them and provides sanctuariesIJ” she said, adding, “The germ of evil has grown into a hydra-headed monster, backed by technological sophistication that threatens the peace and harmony of our world.”
“We will not be able to win against terrorism by making specious distinctions between your problems and mine, between terrorists who attack you and those who attack me. For we do not know who this Frankenstein’s monster will devour next,” Swaraj said, adding the only way to defeat terrorism is for countries to united across their differences, adding steel to their resolve and injecting urgency in their response.
She regretted that the United Nations has still not adopted the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) that was proposed by India back in 1996. In its absence, “we are unable to develop a norm under which terrorists shall be prosecuted or extradited”, she said and pressed for early adoption of this critical convention.
Sushma also strongly reiterated India’s demand for early UN reforms, including expanding the Security Council. “Just as we need a more contemporary approach to combating terrorism, we also need a less outdated Security Council that continues to reflect the world order of an earlier era.
The vast majority of nations share the belief that the UN should not remain frozen in 1945, just to serve the interests of a few,” she said.
Dismissing Sharif’s allegations of human rights violations in J&K as baseless, Sushma brought up the issue of “egregious abuses” that Pakistan itself was perpetrating within its own country, notably Balochistan. “The brutality against the Baloch people represents the worst form of State oppression,” she said.
In her speech, Sushma also focused on the need to attack the curse of harsh poverty across the world and called for wholehearted implementation of the United Nation’s Sustained Development Goals initiative. “In a globalised world, national effort needs to be supplemented by international cooperation for the successful implementation of Agenda 2030,” she said.
She listed the programmes that India was spearheading in pursuit of the same objectives such as the Swachh Bharat Mission, under which more than 400,000 toilets have been constructed in schools, the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme, the Make in India initiative, Jan Dhan Yojana for financial inclusion, Digital India and Skill India initiative.