As it happened: Sushma attacks Pakistan in speech at UNGA

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj was addressing the United Nations general assembly on Monday against the backdrop of tensions between India and Pakistan triggered by a terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj attacked Pakistan on Monday, saying in her speech at the United Nations General Assembly that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of the country and nobody can snatch it away.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj speaks during the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters on Monday. (AP Photo)

Swaraj, in a retort to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s speech last week where he harped on Kashmir, said: “Kashmir is an integral part of India and it will remain an integral part of India. No one can take it away by force.”

Sharif had used his speech to call for a “serious and sustained dialogue” for the peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes, especially Kashmir, and an independent inquiry and a UN fact-finding mission into “rights violations” in the strife-torn state.

Here are highlights of Swaraj’s speech:

• My firm advice to Pakistan is: abandon this dream. Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so.
• If Pakistan thinks it can snatch a piece of India by issuing such inflammatory remarks, let me tell you it will never be successful.
• The brutality against the Baloch people represents the worst form of State oppression.
• Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others: Swaraj on Nawaz Sharif’s Kashmir rant at UNGA.
• Those who seed extremist ideologies, reap a bitter harvest.
• In our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it. To shelter terrorists has become their calling card. We must identify these nations and hold them to account. These nations, in which UN designated terrorists roam freely, lead processions and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, are as culpable as the very terrorists they harbour. Such countries should have no place in the comity of nations.
• Any nation that doesn’t want to fight terrorism should be isolated.
• We need to identify who gives shelter to the terrorists. How are they able to carry out such activities?. We need to uproot terrorism.
• Terrorism is the biggest violation of human rights, a crime against humanity itself. But we must ask - who benefits?.
• Sanitation is also a big issue, and we have started ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’ under which four lakh toilets are built in two lakh schools.
• Jan Dhan Yojana is the world’s largest financial inclusion programme.
• We must remember that we will be defined not just by our actions, but equally, by our inaction.
• Today, the biggest challenge all of us face is the poverty prevalent in all corners of the world.
• A year has passed since I stood at this hallowed podium to address members of the international community,so much has changed since then.