India & Pakistan find a neutral battle field
The 72nd United Nations General Assembly session where hosted World leaders to express their view points before the International community also remained a witness to Indo-Pak acerbity, and hostility that has, by far, been a dominant force in the bilateral relations between the two countries. India and Pakistan, since their independence, have had outstanding disputes, the most prominent of all being the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and have failed time and again to reach meaningful and sustainable resolution of these disputes through bilateral relations. Having fought three wars, even the international community has secured little success in keeping the two hostile neighbors at peace with each other.
The shared bitterness, however, remained exclusive in the bilateral dialogues between India and Pakistan, until the last UNGA session, where both the sides seemingly exploded, and bombarded each other with blames, and hurled accusations against each other pertaining to destabilising regional and global security, violating human rights, and conspiring against one another. In the form of the United Nations, perhaps, both India and Pakistan have found a neutral ground to play their blame-game.
While addressing the UNGA, Prime Minster Shahid Khaqan Abbasi exposed the Indian aggression, atrocities, and its hegemonic designs threatening regional security and stability. The PM called on the UN and the World community to contain India aggression, and force India to stop human rights violations in the IHK. The PM also drew the international forum’s attention towards the hostile neighbor’s frequent violations of the Line of Control (LoC).
The Indian Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, in her speech reacted vigorously to the Pakistani Premier’s accusations, and spent half the time of her address in blaming Pakistan for promoting extremism and terrorism, and spending its resources to feed this destructive evil instead of contributing to meaningful development of its people. Swaraj, in her address, raised questions on why Pakistan turned down its offers for a bilateral dialogue in the past, and moved on to term Pakistan as The Pre-Eminent Export Factory for Terror, fueling instability in the region. Eenam Gambhir, a first secretary in India’s permanent mission to the UN also termed Pakistan as Terroristan. The Indian FM’s speech provoked the Pakistani side to respond to the accusations by exercising the right of reply. Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, while responding declared the speech by the Indian Foreign Minister an Orgy of Slander against Pakistan, and an intentional attempt to divert international attention from the Indian atrocities, and State terrorism in the Indian held Kashmir (IHK). Lodhi accused India for large scale human rights violations not only in the occupied territory, but on its own land too, and termed it as Mother of Terrorism. She also raised the issue of government backed Indian agency’s involvement in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, labeling it as an example of State Sponsored Terrorism. Lodhi went on to call the largest democracy in the World as, infact, the largest hypocrisy.
Bad mouthing each other, more than anything else, appeared to be the most dominating element in not just Indian and Pakistani officials’ speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, but also remained a highlight of the US President Donald Trump’s address where he lashed out at North Korea. UNGA is a forum that most believe could have been used more wisely.
An Eye for an Eye!
Both, India and Pakistan, blamed each other for this demonstration of bad mouthing at the UN, each side claiming that it only responded to the accusations hurled by the other against them in their right of reply.
Where the Indian side continued with its streak of being aggressive at the United Nations, aggression from the Pakistani side was more of an aberration since Pakistan resorts to a more lenient stance at the UN. The vocal change, however, has been welcomed by the experts in the diplomatic circle as it was much needed.
Hyper-nationalism remained at its peak during the UNGA, and might be a sign of certain countries and their governments running out of patience, which should be a cause of great concern for the United Nations.
Where is the UN going?
In this entire episode, the role of United Nations becomes questionable, as representatives from both India and Pakistan expressed their concerns over the role of the UN, and stressed upon the new Secretary General to make the platform of UN more proactive and action oriented.
The UN is certainly not a stage for countries to exhibit their Hyper-Nationalism, or even to discuss their bilateral issues. The UN can only intervene when two countries fail to resolve their disputes bilaterally, and require assistance of an international body. Pakistan and India, instead of bad mouthing one another at international forums, must work towards resolving their issues bilaterally through increased diplomatic outreach and engagement, failing which they should only approach the United Nations; that too can be done in a more sophisticated manner.
For UN, it is imperative to assert and perform its role where required. The Kashmir dispute is a harsh reality between India and Pakistan since their inception, and is recognised by the UN Security Council as a disputed territory between the two countries. The UN resolutions lay out a clear guideline for its solution. It’s up to the UN to step up and force the implementation of its resolutions, as it is necessary to retain the faith of respective stakeholders.