In her address to the United Nations General Assembly, union minister, Sushma Swaraj, said that the priority of India, since independence, has been to lift its people out of poverty.
Swaraj also listed the steps taken by the Narendra Modi government towards financial inclusion, poverty alleviation and introducing social and economic reforms. “While India is fighting poverty, Pakistan is fighting against us,” she told the gathering.
“I want to ask Pakistan: We both became independent together. But why is it that we gave birth to IITs, IIMs, AIIMs and other institutes. Whereas you produced Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Haqqani Network and other terrorists”, she questioned.
Swaraj added that the “jihad” originating from Pakistan, is not only targeted against India but also Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
“The region of South Asia has been disturbed due to the jihadis emanating from one country,” she added.
On Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s claim that his country is the worst affected by terrorism, the minister said that the world should not be deceived by Islamabad’s narrative of being the victim. “When the Pakistani PM made his statement on terror, people in the UN General Assembly said: look who is speaking?”
“Instead of playing the victim, Pakistan should introspect. If they stop arming, funding and supplying terrorists, they can spend on the welfare of their masses. Only then, they will succeed in providing the common people of Pakistan education and healthcare,” she added.
The External Affairs Minister also appealed the UN General Assembly to enact the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, which was proposed by India back in 1996. “It has been stalled so far for only one reason: the definition of terrorism. Why do we need to distinguish between good and
