External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 73rd session in New York. In her fiery speech, she went hammer and tongs after Pakistan. She absolutely exposed Pakistan for its commitment to terror. Swaraj slammed Pakistan for spreading terrorism and went on to reiterate that India’s neighbour is not only skilled in promoting terrorism but also holds expertise in refusing its deeds. Taking a dig at Pakistan for releasing postage stamps commemorating slain Kashmiri terrorists, Swaraj argued that Islamabad was glorifying killers but refused to see the blood of Innocents.
Sushma Swaraj appealed at the session that a Comprehensive Convention On International Terrorism (CCIT) should be passed as soon as possible after a consensus is reached. Such a convention would come as a telling blow for countries like Pakistan who practise the policy of exporting terrorism to their neighbours and elsewhere in the world. She also made it clear that Pakistan represents inhumanity and not human rights. The external affairs minister said that those who take innocent lives in pursuit of war are defenders of inhuman behaviour and not human rights.
Sushma Swaraj also attacked Pakistan for its hypocrisy, lies and deceit. Speaking about a faux pas last year, when Pakistan’s representative tried to pass off photographs of Palestine as that of human rights violations in Kashmir, she said, “The United Nations has seen this before. Last year, Pakistan’s representative, using her right to reply, displayed some photographs as ‘proof’ of ‘human rights violations’ by India. The photographs turned out to be from another country. Similar false accusations have become a part of its standard rhetoric.”
Sushma Swaraj also came out all guns blazing against the Pakistani allegation that the recent attempt at holding foreign minister level talks at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly had collapsed due to India’s negative response. She asked, “Please explain to me how we could pursue talks in the midst of terrorist bloodshed? Even now, after the new government came to power, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan wrote to Prime Minister Modi suggesting a meeting between foreign ministers in New York. We accepted the proposal. But, within hours of our acceptance, news came that terrorists had killed three of our jawans. Does this indicate a desire for dialogue?’’ With this, she exposed the double talk of Pakistan before the world forum. While Pakistan speaks of peace, in reality, its actions are responsible for the strained Indo-Pak relations. Sushma Swaraj also highlighted how all different governments in India had tried the peace option with Pakistan but to no avail as Pakistan does not understand the language of peace. The minister also recalled how Prime Minister Modi had made an attempt at peace by inviting the heads of all SAARC nations including Pakistan to his swearing-in ceremony.
She continued her scathing attack on Pak stating, “The demon of terrorism now stalks the world, at a faster pace somewhere, a slower pace elsewhere, but life-threatening everywhere. In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land, but across our border to the west.” Thereafter, she took the example of how Pakistan was giving a safe haven to Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11 and the most wanted terrorist as far as the US was concerned. She stated, “What America perhaps could not comprehend was that Osama would get sanctuary in a country that claimed to be America’s friend and ally: Pakistan. Eventually, America’s intelligence services discovered the truth of this hypocrisy, and its special forces delivered justice. But Pak continued to behave as if nothing had happened.” She concluded by stating that while the killers of 9/11 were punished but the mastermind of 26/11, Hafiz Saeed, still roam free in Pakistan streets.
It is worth appreciating how Sushma Swaraj has used the world forum in order to put across her point. The way she anticipated the lies and baseless allegations that Pak would utter against India, she was able to set it up really well for India.