Will India & Pakistan Survive The War Of Words At UNGA
Hoping that someday India and Pakistan would reach a common ground where we would look at each other with empathy and become friendly neighbours seems like a distant dream. The international public spat between the two countires at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) ensured that we will continue to seethe at each other without refrain for a long time to come.
With a year gone by struggling with the COVID pandemic and both countries being plunging into renewed issues of unemploment and poverty – the main points that we ended up discusing were as usual Kashmir and terrorrism.
Since its inception, the UNGA, has been a forum for lofty declarations, sometimes audacious rhetoric, and rigorous debate over the world’s most vexing issues, from poverty and development to peace and security. As the most representative organ of the United Nations, the assembly holds a general debate in the organization’s New York headquarters from September to December and convenes special sessions at other times to address a range of issues.
After last year’s completely virtual meeting, a historic first, the seventy-sixth session in 2021 returned in person. The session was focused on ramping up global vaccination efforts, combating climate change, and advancing gender equality. Also on the agenda were food security, post-pandemic economic recovery, and biodiversity. But seemingly these topics are too meneial for India and Pakistan to talk about.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan successfully instigated the entire Indian brigade at the UNGA with comments like, “The worst and most pervasive form of Islamophobia now rules India,” and “The hate-filled Hindutva ideology, propagated by the fascist RSS-BJP regime, has unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community.”
While the Indian government’s actions (or inactions) actually make these words sound true, being spoken by Imran Khan on the international forum in front of world leaders, was not something that India was ready to accept.
So a young Indian diplomat responded calling Pakistan “the country which is an arsonist disguising itself as a firefighter.” Sneha Dubey, a first secretary at India’s UN mission, accused Pakistan of sheltering and glorifying al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden who was killed by US special forces in a 2011 raid in the army city of Abbottabad.
Pakistan’s attempts to internationalize the Kashmir gained no traction from the international community as Member Nations maintained that Kashmir is a bilateral matter between the two countries.
At #UNGA 1) India spoke about India & Pak spoke about India 2) India ignored Pak & Pak ignored Pak 3) Modi did not speak about Modi,BJP,Hindus,RSS & Pak spoke about Modi,BJP,Hindus,RSS 4) India spoke of vaccine, investment, renewable energy & Pak spoke about Mujaheddin, Jihad 🤦 pic.twitter.com/PqylfUVC2b
— Ravindra Vasisht (@rvasisht) September 26, 2021
Social media was quick to pick up on the vibes and suddenly people who had no clue about the existance of the United Nations became experts of international law overnight. This obviously helped snowball the visibility of the event.
In the greater scheme of things made both countries ened up looking petty and unable to move on from one upping each other. Whether we will ever be able to move forward from such incidents remains questionable with no visible resolution any time soon. We will just keep up hope like the UN Secretary did at the inauguration of UNGA.
This week at #UNGA my message was simple:
Our world has never been more threatened or divided. But I have hope.
These are problems we have created, and problems we can solve.
Humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we join forces.
Let's get to work. pic.twitter.com/U4ok4nfWZ8
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) September 26, 2021
