‘ Threat of war is brinkmanship’: India slams Imran

RIGHT OF REPLY Pak PM’S justification of terrorism in his speech at UNGA was brazen and incendiary, says India

NEW YORK: I ndia on Friday slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for delivering a “hate speech” at the UNGA which “bordered on crudeness” and said his justification of terrorism was “brazen and incendiary”. Exercising its right-of-reply, India also posed five questions for UN observers invited by Khan to visit Pakistan and verify his claim there are no militants there.

Separately, through t he spokesperson, India responded to the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s observations on Jammu and Kashmir in his speech and said recent developments there are a “matter internal to India” and said countries should “desist” from changing the status quo through the “illegal so-called” China, Pakistan Economic Corridor”.

At the UNGA, India focussed on Pakistan. “What we heard today from Prime Minister Imran Khan was a callous portrayal of the world in binary terms,” Vidisha Mishra, a first secretary at the Indian mission to the UN, said late Friday night. “Us vs them; rich vs poor; north vs south; developed vs developing; Muslims vs others. A script Citizens of India do not need anyone else to speak on their behalf, least of all those who have built an industry of terrorism from the ideology of hate

Words matter in diplomacy. Invocation of phrases such as ‘pogrom’, ‘bloodbath’, ‘racial superiority’, ‘pick up the gun’ and ‘fight to the end’ reflect a medieval mindset and not a 21st century vision. Pogroms, Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi, are not a phenomenon of today’s vibrant democracies VIDISHA MAITRA, first secretary in India’s permanent mission to UN When a nuclear-armed country fights to the end, it will have consequences far beyond the borders IMRAN KHAN, Pakistan PM