The General Assembly of United Nations has seen some of the most unusual and unprecedented incidents occur within its hallowed walls. From Gaddafi’s speech to Chavez calling former American president George W. Bush Jr. ‘The Devil’, the general assembly has continuously sparked controversy but the recent move by Pakistan in the general assembly is unprecedented.
Pakistan exercising its ‘right to reply’ in a debate about terrorism in the United Nations general assembly took a route that is all too familiar to the average news-following Indian. The entire reply seemed like it was taken from the opposition party rallies and hastily put together for an argument.
The Pakistani diplomat interestingly used a word that created by the Congress party hierarchy. “Hindu extremist” is a term that the Congress first associated with Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangha and Bharatiya Janata Party.
On numerous occasions, Congress has labelled the BJP and the RSS as ‘Hindu extremist’ organization. Recently The then Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah in the run of the state polls called the Bharatiya Janata party ”Hindutva Extremist.”
It is not only Siddaramaiah, but Congress president Rahul Gandhi has also frequently talked about Hindu extremism and how it is the biggest threat in India. A Wikileaks diplomatic cable reveals that Rahul has warned the then US ambassador Timothy Roemer that growth of ”radicalised Hindu Groups” which create religious tensions in India could pose a bigger threat to the country than the infamous terrorist organization Lashkar- e- Taiba(LeT).
It is important to mention here that this entire narrative of ”Hindu terrorism” and ”Hindu extremism” has been debunked a long time ago. Continuing with finding the source of the Pakistani diplomat’s tirade against India, the diplomat also raised another political rhetoric used by the Congress to target the incumbent government as a legitimate argument against India and Indian institutions.
The Diplomat stated that in India there is a state-backed patronage of the religious superiority of one group throughout the country. He added, “the breeding ground of terrorism in our region is the RSS centres of fascism”. This again is another rhetoric perpetrated by the Congress. It is amusing that Pakistan, where even Ahmadiyyas aren’t considered worthy enough because of their religion, would talk about
Rahul time and time again has stated how there is nothing short of fascism that is being perpetuated in this country by the BJP and in turn by the RSS. In January this year, he accused BJP and RSS of being Fascist. Not only Rahul but Congress leaders have been making such ill-informed remarks for quite some time now, a few years back a few Congress leaders accused BJP of turning India into a ‘Neo-Fascist‘ state, which is eerily similar to what the Pakistani diplomat pointed out.
It is pretty clear that there is a pattern here. The diplomat in all his attacks against India used the reasoning and words of a particular Indian political party.
As one goes through the Pakistani response, the pattern seems more and more clear. The Diplomat mentioned Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath next. According to the Diplomat, “Members of India’s minorities, including Christians and Muslims, are publically lynched at the hands of Hindus elites, where an unabashed Hindu extremist Yogi Adityanath, who openly supports the superiority of the Hindus, serves as the face of the largest Indian state Uttar Pradesh.”
Yogi has always been surrounded with controversy but all of that was of electoral nature, Congress during the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh state polls, which BJP swept had made similar comments. Congress has indulged in similar political discourse when they barely secured the Karnataka State Assembly. Instead of introspection, they blamed Yogi Adityanath and the BJP’s ‘Hindutva’ for their less than moderate victory in the state.
Interestingly enough, The Pakistani diplomat also took a dig at the BJP national president Amit Shah and somehow behaved like an opposition politician from India instead of a statesman form Pakistan. pakistan also quoted from the opposition’s playbook while attacking India on National Registration Of Citizens in Assam. The Diplomat stated – “For a country where Right to citizenship to Bengalees in Assam is being arbitrarily rescinded and who have suddenly been made stateless and have been called ‘termites’ by a prominent Indian leader, where churches and mosques are torched, is surely not qualified to give sermons to others.”
This again is the line of the opposition where they tried to paint the drive to rid illegal aliens from the country being influenced by religiosity rather than legality. All in all every single point that was raised by the Pakistani diplomat was taken from the Congress and its allies handbook of political rhetoric.
In a democracy, opposition plays an important part, a part of holding the government accountable but that should not be at the expense of the Country and its international stature. Disdain or disliking for one party or the government should not be a justifiable cause for playing into an adversarial plot of the enemy.
