The India-Pakistan war of words at the United Nations over the issue of terrorism witnessed a massive showdown on Friday with the external affairs ministry condemning Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto’s personal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the strongest of words. The BJP will hold a nationwide protest on Saturday against Bilawal Bhutto’s comment, the party said. Read | Hit for global terror in UNSC, Pak personally targets PM Modi
Here are 10 things to know about the issue:
1. Foreign minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto have taken potshots at each other several times in the United Nations.
2. As Bilawal raked up the issue of Kashmir at the UN, Jaishankar said those who hosted Osama bin Laden do not have the credentials to sermonise. “Nor can hosting Osama bin Laden and attacking a neighbouring Parliament serve as credentials to sermonize before this council,” he said.
3. Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs Hina Rabbani Khar blamed India for terrorism and said “no country had used terrorism better than India”.
4. Calling Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism, Jaishankar said one can’t have snakes in the backyard and expect them to only bite the neighbours. “I read the reports on what Hina Rabbani Khar said. I was reminded, more than a decade ago, Hillary Clinton was visiting Islamabad. Hina Rabbani Khar was the minister at that time. Standing next to her, Hillary Clinton said …if you have a snake in the backyard you cannot expect it to bite only your neighbour, eventually, it will bite the people who keep them in the backyard.”
5. The world is not stupid, Jaishankar said replying to a question from a Pakistani journalist and said despite the ‘brain-fog’ induced by Covid, the world has not forgotten who has their fingerprints over a lot of activities (terror) in the region and beyond.
6. In reply to Jaishankar’s attack, Bilawal Bhutto launched a personal attack on PM Modi. He called Modi and Jaishankar the prime minister and the foreign minister of the RSS, which “drew inspiration from Hitler’s SS’.
7. The external affairs ministry issued a statement calling Bilawal Bhutto’s outburst uncivilised. New Delhi said the statement marks a new low even for Pakistan.
8. In its statement, the ministry called out Pakistan for glorifying Osama bin laden and sheltering terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar etc.
9. The BJP issued a statement in which it said, “What more can be expected from Pakistan’s Foreign Minister which reflects his and his government’s desperation and mental bankruptcy.” “Does Bilawal Bhutto even have the stature to comment about our PM Narendra Modi who is a true statesman and a highly respected global leader? This demeaning statement of Bilawal Bhutto further lowered the image of Pakistan on the global platform,” the BJP said.
10. BJP’s Rajyaardhan Singh Rathore said Bilawal’s mother Benazir Bhutto was involved in promoting terrorism in Kashmir and was killed by the same terrorists. Union minister Anurag Thakur said Bilawal’s statement reflects the pain of their defeat at the hand of India in 1971.
