India on Saturday blasted Pakistan as the world’s “pre-eminent export factory for terror” and asked its leadership to look within and see why it has languished and degenerated while India has transformed itself into a globally-recognised IT superpower. “What has Pakistan offered to the world and indeed to its own people apart from terrorismIJ” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj posed in her address to the UN General Assembly and derided its Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as “a champion of hypocrisy preaching about humanity from this podium”.
“We produced scholars, doctors, engineers. What have you producedIJ” Swaraj asked, noting, “You have produced terrorists. Doctors save people from death; terrorists send them to death.”
“India created IIM, IITs and AIIMs, but Pakistan, what have you createdIJ You have created lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Haqqani Network and Hizbul Mujahideen,” she said, commenting, “If Pakistan had spent on its development what it has spent on developing terror, both Pakistan and the world would be safer and better-off today.”
Responding to Abbasi’s accusations that India was indulging in State-sponsored terrorism and violating human rights, she acidly commented, “Those listening had only one observation: look who’s talking!”
On the issue of bilateral dialogue, Swaraj reminded the Pakistani leader that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who from the moment he took his oath of office, offered the hand of peace and friendship, adding it was for Pakistan to answer why his nation spurned this offer.
Swaraj slammed the Pakistani Prime Minister for harking back to old UN resolutions over the Kashmir issue, while conveniently forgetting that under the Shimla Agreement and the lahore Declaration, both countries have resolved to settle all outstanding issues bilaterally.
“The reality is that Pakistan’s politicians remember everything, manipulate memory into a convenience. They are masters at “forgetting” facts that destroy their version,” she said.
India, she said, represented a culture and thought that truly believed in the world being one family: “May all be happy; May all be healthy; May all see what is good; May all be free from suffering.”
In her address, Swaraj made a strong pitch for early adoption of the long-pending Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), which India, as one of the oldest victims of terrorism, proposed as far back as 1996.
Although two decades have passed, little has happened other than ritualistic condemnations of the evil and pious resolves to fight the menace, she regretted that the United Nations has still not been able to agree upon a definition of terrorism because of duplicitous behaviour on part of some nations, motivated by their self-interest.
“If we cannot agree to define our enemy, how can we fight togetherIJ If we continue to differentiate between good terrorists and bad terrorists, how can we fight togetherIJ If even the United Nations Security Council cannot agree on the listing of terrorists, how can we fight togetherIJ” she asked, urging an agreement on this issue before the end of this year.
Swaraj, who spoke in Hindi, also drew the world body’s attention to the continuing delays on proceeding with UN reforms, notably expanding the UN Security Council in both the permanent and non-permanent categories.
Back in 2005 at the time of the World Summit, there was a consensus on early reform of the Security Council, she recalled and urged the start of text-based negotiations to bring it about. “If we are serious, then the least we can do is produce one text that can be the basis for negotiation,” she said.
Swaraj also used her address to highlight a whole host of pro-poor initiatives spearheaded by the Modi Government, dwelling on economic programmes such as Jan Dhan, Mudra, Ujjwala, Skill India, Digital India, Start-Up India and Stand-Up India.
In a strong defence of the Paris accord on climate change, she referred to the recent spate of hurricanes such as Harvey and Irma and the Mexican earthquake, noting: “We must understand this requires more serious action than talk. The developed world must listen more carefully than others, because it has more capacities than others. It must help the less fortunate through technology transfer and Green Climate Financing.”