Sushma at UN: We create IITs, Pak jihad factories

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 23

Terror dominated External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s speech in New York as she addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the third consecutive time. Addressing the 72nd session, the minister held a mirror to Islamabad as she highlighted the differences in the global image of India and Pakistan.

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“Why is it that today India is a recognised IT superpower in the world and Pakistan is recognised only as the pre-eminent export factory for terror,” she asked. She said while India had created IITs, IIMs, doctors, engineers and scholars, Pakistan had created the JeM, LeT and Haqqani network that produced jihadis and terrorists who attacked not just India, but also Afghanistan and Bangladesh. “ Doctors save people from death while terrorists send them to death,” she remarked.

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With Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi, in his address, accusing India of terrorism and human rights violation and seeking a UN-appointed envoy for Kashmir, Swaraj reminded him of his party leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision of December 2015 to resume talks as “comprehensive bilateral dialogue.”

Swaraj emphasised: “The term ‘bilateral’ was used consciously to remove any confusion  or doubt that the proposed talks would be between our two nations, and only between our two nations, without any third party present.” 

The minister urged upon the multilateral body to complete negotiations and adopt the CCIT (Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism) pending since 1996, within this year. “If we cannot agree to define our enemy, how can we fight together,” she asked the UN members.

On climate change, she responded to US President Donald Trump’s charge that India had signed the Paris agreement under monetary influence. “India has already said it is committed to the Paris accord. This is not because we are afraid of any power, influenced by friend or foe, or tempted by some unimagined greed. This is an outcome of a philosophy that is at least 5,000 years old,” she explained, calling the recent hurricane Harvey, floods and earthquake, from the US to Dominica, as nature’s warning.

Swaraj highlighted the Indian Government’s social welfare schemes and steps towards radical reforms, such as demonetisation and the GST legislation, aimed at ‘eliminating poverty by investing in the poor.’

Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his maiden UNGA speech in 2014 had focused on climate change, sustainable development and poverty eradication while reaching out to Pakistan to join hands on humanitarian causes. Since then, India’s focus has clearly shifted once again to Pakistan-centric terror, which laced Swaraj’s 2016 speech in the wake of the Uri terror strikes.