Press "Enter" to skip to content

India’s Reply to Pakistan at United Nations: Full Text

In her response to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s speech, India’s First Secretary to the UN, Eenam Gambhir, on Friday said that Pakistan has become ‘synonymous with terror’. Gambhir also said that the world ‘does not need lessons on democracy and human rights’ from Pakistan.

Here is the full Transcript:

India’s Right to Reply during the General Debate of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly

21 September, 2017

Mr President,

Even as terrorists thrive in Pakistan and roam its streets with impunity, we have heard it lecture about the protection of human rights in India. The world does not need lessons on democracy and human rights from a country whose own situation is charitably described as a failed state.

Mr President,

Terroristan is in fact a territory whose contribution to the globalisation of terror is unparalleled.

Pakistan can only be counseled to abandon a destructive worldview that has caused grief to the entire world. If it could be persuaded to demonstrate any commitment to civilisation, order and to peace, it may still find some acceptance in the comity of nations.

Mr President,

I take the floor to exercise the right of reply in response to Pakistan’s defence on terrorism. It is extraordinary that the state which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Mullah Omar should have the gumption to play the victim.

By now, all Pakistan’s neighbours are painfully familiar with these tactics to create a narrative based on distortions, deception and deceit. The august Assembly and the world beyond know that efforts at creating alternative facts do not change reality.

Mr President,

In this short history, Pakistan has become a geography synonymous with terror. The quest for a land of pure has actually produced “the land of pure terror”. Pakistan is now “Terroristan”, with a flourishing industry producing and exporting global terrorism.

Its current state can be gauged from the fact that Hafiz Mohammed Seed, a leader of the UN-designated terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, is now sought to be legitimised as a leader of a poetical party.

This is a country whose counter terrorism policy is to mainstream and upstream terrorists by either providing safe havens to global terror leaders in its military town, or protecting them with political careers.

None of this can justify Pakistan’s avaricious efforts to covet the territories of its neighbours. In so far India is concerned Pakistan must understand that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is and will always remain an integral part of India. However much it scales-up cross-border terrorism, it will never succeed undermine India’s territorial integrity.

Mr President,

We also heard Pakistan complain about the consequences of its supposed counter-terrorism efforts.

Having diverted billions of dollars in international military and development aid in towards creating a dangerous infrastructure of terror on its own territory, Pakistan is now speaking of the high cost of its terror industry. The polluter in this case is paying the price.

Related Stories

Source: News18