Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always sought dialogue and peace but Pakistan has turned its back on the offer, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 23. Mr. Modi, “from the moment he took his oath of office, offered the hand of peace and friendship,” to Pakistan, the Minister said. Pakistan must answer why it spurned this offer, the Minister said.
“We are completely engaged in fighting poverty; alas, our neighbour Pakistan seems only engaged in fighting us,” she said, adding that Mr. Modi has radically changed the approach to poverty alleviation in India. The Minister said demonetisation was “a courageous decision to challenge one of the by-products of corruption”, and as a result, black money has “disappeared from circulation”.
Her 22-minute speech delivered in Hindi sought to contrast India’s progress that is helping the world deal with a multitude of challenges with Pakistan, which she said has become nothing more than a country that exports terrorism. “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.
“We are eliminating poverty by investing in the poor,” Ms. Swaraj said of Mr. Modi’s approach, which she said was a departure from the “traditional method” of “incremental levels of aid and hand-holding”.
“…Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen the more radical route, through economic empowerment. The poor are not helpless; we have merely denied them opportunity,” Ms. Swaraj said, emphasising that the complete eradication of poverty is the most important priority of the present government.
The Minister said the Modi government has undertaken a slew measures to this end, and went on to underscore three of them — the Jandhan Yojana for financial inclusion, the Mudra Yojana for soft loans for micro entrepreneurs, and the Ujjwala scheme for providing cooking gas for the poor. She said alongside these measures, the government was also undertaking market reforms such as GST.
Ms. Swaraj countered Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who had earlier in the week accused India of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. The Minister said Pakistan PM’s reference to U.N resolutions on Kashmir have been long overtaken by events and India and Pakistan have mutually agreed to resolve all issues bilaterally, in the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. She said Pakistan has allowed the joint decision in 2015 to have a "Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue”, which was proposed by the then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif. “Pakistan is responsible for the aborting that peace process,” she said.
The Minister said Pakistan must introspect the reasons for its problems and spend on the welfare of its citizens. “We have produced scholars, doctors, engineers. What have you produced? You have produced jihadis. Doctors save people from death; jihadis send them to death. 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,” Ms. Swaraj said.
Presenting India as a partner in the international community’s attempt to deal with climate change, security challengers and developmental goals, the Minister said the U.N. must no longer delay the adaptation of a commonly agreed definition of terrorism. “U.N. has not been able to agree upon a definition of terrorism. If we cannot agree to define our enemy, how can we fight together? If we continue to differentiate between good terrorists and bad terrorists, how can we fight together?” she said, reiterating a long-standing Indian demand.
