DNA Edit | Power points: Swaraj’s speech breached through Pakistan’s bulwark

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s address at the United Nations General Assembly was a scorcher that singed Pakistan badly. In her distinctive style, Swaraj stressed on how Pakistan— to this day— is a breeding ground for a raft of terrorist organisations, while India was continuing to outshine not just Pakistan but the global community as well by producing from its establishments of higher learning the finest of talents and the brightest of minds that the world has ever seen.

Rightfully, Swaraj questioned the rather unwarranted audacity of Pakistan’s PM Shahid Khakan Abbasi who had earlier accused India of state-sponsored terrorism, and of violating human rights. Swaraj, in her speech, left no stone unturned in pointing out to Pakistan that it is no position to take a holier-than-thou stand against the likes of India. Swaraj also reminded Pakistan that its avowed stand of teaching India about humanity from the UNGA’s lofty podium reeks of the highest order of hypocrisy given that the impoverished country is “the world’s largest exporter of havoc, death, and inhumanity,”.
Presently, India welcomes whatever help it can get in its relentless fight against terrorism, and Swaraj’s speech should go a long way in centralising those efforts. With her address, she has opened a new front and it is now for the troops of our diplomatic corps to unleash a sustained, focused and unremitting attack on Pakistan’s soft power and its unabashed grandstanding. Essential to this strategy will be to dissuade the USA from channeling aid to Pakistan. Unlike the former US Presidents, Donald Trump has shown that he is not inclined to be patient with Pakistan and is not open to indiscriminately funneling funds into the country.

Naturally, Pakistan’s erstwhile stature of being a strategic ally of the US has taken a huge hit as it continues to accept US’s aid on the pretext that it will cull out terrorist organisations from its soil but covertly lends support to those very terrorist organisations. It is under President Trump that the country has found the political will to ask Pakistan to deliver on its promises. Already, the aid that is coming to Pakistan is based on the condition that it should show actual results from ground zero in its fight against terror. India must seize the day by lobbying for a complete stop to all monetary and in-kind aid that Pakistan receives from the US. Simultaneously, the Indian establishment must put in place a long-term strategy to meet blow for blow, the worrying rise of China’s clout in South-east Asia.