With her prudent and exceptionally well-delivered address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has put forward the Indian perspective on the global terror and the UN’s inadequate response to it forcefully and with great candour.
While she did castigate Pakistan for exporting terror, the tone and tenor of her address was not essentially Pakistan-centric. Contrasting the development narrative of the two countries that had gained independence within hours of each other, she rightly underlined that India was engaged in fighting poverty and producing technocrats and specialists to improve its social indicators. Pakistan, on the other hand, was busy producing terrorist groups that targeted India and the entire world.
She aptly conveyed to a global audience that terrorism is an evil that impacted various aspects of human conditions and the planet’s ecological balance, including climate change, international maritime security, campaign against hunger and poverty, youth employment, gender empowerment, nuclear non-proliferation and cyber security. It was also destabilising large swaths of humanity from their established home bases to distant lands, as refugees. Given 2030 stood as the target year for meeting sustainable goals fixed in 2015, Swaraj reminded that hard and focused action in the remaining years was imperative to avert a human catastrophe.
Short on rhetoric and strong on substance, Swaraj’s address reflected the sense and sensibility of a responsible emergent world power. Describing terrorism as an “existentialist danger” to the mankind, Swaraj wondered how the international community will fight the menace if the UN Security Council (UNSC) cannot agree on the listing of terrorists.In a veiled dig at China to block some Pakistan-based terrorists included in the UNSC list, she pointed out that talks against terrorism will remain mere rituals till some world leaders continue to create duplicity to promote their self-interests.
Her call to the UN member-states to display their new commitment by reaching agreement on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) this year itself was timely. Although India had proposed a CCIT as early as in 1996, yet two decades later the UN has not been able to agree on a definition of terrorism.The external affairs minister successfully used the UN to identify global challenges and reiterated India’s commitment to creating a better planet. Her address spanned a wide range of issues, from UN reforms to gender empowerment. In the matter of long-pending UNSC reforms, for instance, there was a consensus at the 2005 World Summit that the early reform of the Council was an essential element of our overall effort to reform the UN.
Efforts at text-based negotiations on the reform and expansion of the UNSC were initiated in the last session and more than 160 nations had expressed support for this effort. Yet an agreed text on the reforms continues to elude.On climate change, she effectively rebutted US President Donald Trump’s stand on the Paris Accord and asked the leaders of the developed world to help the less fortunate ones through technology transfer and Green Climate Financing. She reminded that even as the world leaders’ gathering at the UNGA began, an earthquake struck Mexico and a hurricane landed in Dominica.
She elaborated various initiatives taken by the Narendra Modi government to attain universally sustainable goals through the Jan Dhan Scheme for financial inclusion of millions of people, Mudra plan to fund the unfunded, Ujjwala programme for providing free gas cylinders for the poor, Skill India to enable acquisition of new traits and skills towards higher productivity and Start Up India for idea generation among Indian youth. These and other sustainable developmental goals, including Save the Girl, Educate the Girl and Clean India campaigns, according to her, reflected Indian government’s tenacious approach to modify lives of those who had for long constituted the base of the country’s social structure.
Many other leaders and distinguished personalities, including President Trump, too addressed the 72nd session of the General Assembly. Swaraj’s comments would also have been noticed in Washington DC, since it seemed of a piece with Trump’s rhetoric at the UNGA.
The Chinese media has described her speech “arrogant” but conceded that there was terrorism in Pakistan. However, reception from the American administration may indeed be the most important part of the entire effort. Swaraj’s high-profile speech sends a message, but it will be the ongoing visit of US Defence Secretary James and the outcome of discussion around Af-Pak region that could well dictate if anything is set to change in South Asia anytime soon.
Mohan Das Menon
Former additional secretary, Cabinet Secretariat
mdmenonconsulting@gmail.com