India fielded a young diplomat to trash Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s staccato speech at UN, in which he drummed the Kashmir cause in a formulaic manner and sought to glorify the leader of a proscribed terrorist organization. It was a stinging rebuttal of the Pakistani leader’s speech, who invested 80 per cent of his time in orchestrating the Kashmir cause, with hardly any resonance among world leaders.
“The land of Taxila, one of the greatest learning centres of ancient times, is now host to the Ivy League of terrorism. It attracts aspirants and apprentices from all over the world,” said Eenam Gambhir, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN. Ms Gambhir was deployed to exercise India’s Right of Reply during the General Debate of the 71st session UN General Assembly on September 21.
Condensed in just 510 words, India’s rebuttal was a model of precision and the most devastating indictment of Pakistan’s continuing use of terrorism as a state policy.
“The worst violation of human rights is terrorism. When practiced as an instrument of state policy it is a war crime,” said the diplomat as India intensifies its diplomatic offensive to isolate Pakistan in the aftermath of the terror attack at the Army camp in north Kashmir, which killed 18 Indian soldiers.
“What my country and our other neighbours are facing today is Pakistan’s long-standing policy of sponsoring terrorism, the consequences of which have spread well beyond our region.”
Cut out rhetoric: ‘Pakistan a terrorist state’
There was no florid rhetoric; only a chilling statement about a terrorist state which terrorises its own people and lies incessantly to the international community to extorts billions of dollars. “What we see in Pakistan, Mr. President, is a terrorist state, which channelizes billions of dollars, much of it diverted from international aid, to training, financing and supporting terrorist groups as militant proxies against it neighbours.”
The US, which has provided billions of dollars to Pakistan in the name of counter-terrorism, should be taking particular note of what India said. “Similar false promises it has made to us – the international community – on terrorism.”
“Perhaps renunciation of lies and self-restraint on threats could be a good place for Pakistan to start.”
In a rebuff to Pakistan, more than 25 countries have spoken at the UNGA, but no one even alluded to Kashmir and everybody spoke about the need to fight terror unitedly, underscoring Pakistan’s growing international isolation.
“Two days have passed since the high level debate in the UN General Assembly started. In each of these days 25 countries have spoken. The UN Secretary General himself has spoken and laid out his main areas of concern. If you look at all the statements made so far, no one, I repeat, no one has referred to the issue that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif devoted 80% of his speech to,” said Vikas Swarup, the spokesperson of India’s external affairs ministry.
“On the contrary, virtually every statement has referred to terrorism as the main threat to international peace and security, a fact that Pakistan still remains in denial of. Four of the five members of the Security Council have also spoken and their statements are also available for everyone to see,” he added.
In a repudiation of Pakistan’s duplicity, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon has rejected appeal by the Pakistani leader to intervene in the Kashmir dispute, with his office making it clear that the issue should be resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan.
