At the UNGA meeting, Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that India was avoiding talks with his country & that politics is more important for India rather than peace talks.
Sushma Swaraj slammed Pakistan stating that India refused to hold talks with a nation that upholds terrorism.
“We imagined that the arrival of the 21st century would bring with it an age of common good, defined by cooperation in the quest for peace and prosperity. But here in New York, the horrific tragedy of 9/11, and in Mumbai, the catastrophe of 26/11 became the nightmares that shattered our dreams. 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. Our neighbour’s expertise is not restricted to spawning grounds for terrorism; it is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity.
The most startling evidence of this duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of 9/11 was given safe haven in Pakistan. America had declared Osama bin Laden it’s most dangerous enemy and launched an exhaustive, worldwide search to bring him to justice. 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 Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened. Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit. Neither has its belief in hypocrisy. The killers of 9/11 met their fate, but the mastermind of 26/11 Hafiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity,” Swaraj said.
She clarified on the cancelled talks between her & her Pakistan counterpart.
“We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. This is a complete lie. We believe that talks are the only rational means to resolve the most complex of disputes. Talks with Pakistan have begun many times. If they stopped, it was only because of Pakistan’s behaviour. There have been many governments in India, by many different parties. Each government has tried the peace option.”
“Time and again, Pakistan accuses India of human rights violations. Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behaviour, not of human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers; it refuses to see the blood of innocents. It has become something of a habit with Pakistan to throw the dust of deceit and deception against India in order to provide some thin cover for its own guilt. 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,” the minister said.
As she spoke at length on cross-border terrorism and the worsening India-Pakistan relations, she also took an opportunity to talk about the need for reforms at the United Nations. She said that multilateralism will collapse if the world body remains ineffective.
“The United Nations must accept that it needs fundamental reform. Reform can’t be cosmetic. We need to change the institution’s head and heart to make both compatible to contemporary reality. Reform must begin today; tomorrow could be too late,” she said.
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