‘India will soar high if Pakistan stoops low’

If Pak raises Kashmir issue at UNGA

NEW YORK: India will soar high if Pakistan stoops low by raking up the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly session, India’s top envoy to the United Nations has asserted, warning that Islamabad which mainstreamed terrorism in the past may mainstream hate speech now.

With an anticipated rant by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Kashmir during the UNGA session on September 27, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said “poison pens” don’t work for too long.

Khan has repeatedly vowed that he will “forcefully” raise the issue before the international community during his address to the UNGA.

“We explained to you what is our approach and what is our orientation and how we are working very differently from our previous experiences.

But there may be somebody who is wanting to bring an issue which they have raised before... Your question further is that what if they become more shrill, what if they raise it in a much more sharper manner,” Akbaruddin said at a press conference here on Thursday.

He was responding to a question on whether he expects Kashmir to be raised during the UN General Assembly session and how will India tackle it.

“What you’re telling me is that it will be more of the same, much more of the same from the side of one country. If that is so, what is our response? So let me put it this way.that it is for every country to determine its trajectory of how it wants to approach global platforms. There may be some who stoop low. Our response to them is we soar high. They may stoop low; we soar high,” he said.

Akbaruddin, who laid out the focus and priorities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he arrives for the 74th UN General Assembly session, said a plethora of plurilateral and bilateral engagements and meetings next week highlight the examples of how India will soar higher.