Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday urged the international community to stop the flow of foreign funds to Pakistan. At an event in Dehradun, Singh described Pakistan as a “nursery of terrorism” that should not be fed.
The minister also expressed shock over the recent decision of the UN Security Council to name Pakistan as the vice-president of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. He said, such a decision raises questions about the seriousness of the United Nations in dealing with the scourge of terrorism.
“This Counter-Terrorism Committee was set up after the 9/11 terror attacks by Al Qaeda in the US. Pakistan had sheltered the mastermind of 9/11 attacks. This decision is similar to the proverb about asking a cat to guard the milk. Nothing can be more unfortunate”, Singh said.
The Defence Minister reminded the world community that Pakistan is a country where terror masterminds like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar are allowed to roam freely and to spew poison to recruit terrorists. He said, it is in Pakistan that the army generals openly attend the funeral of terrorists killed in Operation Sindoor and offer “fateha” (prayer). “This is nothing but a cruel joke”, Singh said.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government on Tuesday hiked the country’s defence budget by 20 per cent. At a time when most of the money allocated in Pakistan’s budget goes towards repayment of debt, which amounts to nearly 70 per cent of its GDP, Pakistan government has decided to spend more on defence.
This is happening at a time when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself is saying that his country is going around the world begging for funds. This decision is surely going to cause concern in the minds of Pakistanis. One must remember what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said recently. He said, ‘the youths of Pakistan will have to decide whether they want development or a government or army that wants to promote terrorism’.
All-party global outreach by India : A job well done
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hosted a get-together for the seven all-party delegations that visited 33 world capitals post-Operation Sindoor. Modi thanked the MPs and said, “we are all proud of the manner in which they put forward India’s voice.”
The all-party delegations included MPs from BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal(United), Telugu Desam Party, DMK, Shiv Sena, CPI-M and NCP. Among the MPs were Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari from Congress, Abhishek Banerjee from Trinamool Congress, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi from DMK and Supriya Sule from NCP(SP). AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was part of the delegation, but he could not attend because he had to travel to Dubai for a medical emergency.
The MPs briefed the Prime Minister on their interactions with foreign leaders, lawmakers, and opinion-makers. They shared how India’s position on the need to combat terrorism was received by leaders of different countries.
There are two distinct advantages from this global outreach by India.
Firstly, the world listened to India’s stand on the issue of combating cross-border terrorism. Three points were conveyed to world leaders: (1) Pakistan has become a factory of terrorism , (2) India had no option left but to strike deep inside Pakistan on terror hideouts, (3) The limits of patience have now crossed and India shall no more countenance terror attacks from across the border. If Pakistan carries out another Pahalgam-type mischief, the Indian response will be drastic as most of Pakistan is now within range of our missiles.
Secondly, the other advantage that accrued from this global outreach was, all political parties in India stood united on the issue of Pakistan’s terror attacks. They projected a united face before the world. Of course, there were some losses for Congress. While its leaders who were part of the delegations, spoke in the national interest, the party leadership tried to look out for political gains and losses from this outreach. The result: Congress stood isolated and the party leadership sidelined its own leaders.