UNITED NATIONS - Delegates of India and Pakistan locked horns for the third time in nine days over the status of Jammu and Kashmir after the Pakistani delegate referred to the unresolved dispute in his speech to the UN General Assembly.
Pakistani Ambassador Raza Bashir Tarar, who was participating in a debate on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report on the work of the organisation, praised the work of the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, with the hope that the Kashmir dispute would be peacefully settled.
But even this constructive approach irked the Indian delegate who began to harp on the old tune that Kashmir is an ‘integral part’ of India. “We reject these remarks (about Kashmir) which have no place in this august Assembly,” Ms Namgya Khampa, the Indian delegate , told the 193-memeber Assembly, without saying giving any reasons for doing so.
Her comments contrasted sharply with the mild words of Ambassador Tarar, who is Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative to the UN. Here is what he said, “We believe that peaceful settlement of long-standing disputes like Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir will help promote international peace and stability and enhance the prestige and sanctity of the UN.”
Exercising her right of reply, the Indian delegate said that the Pakistani delegate had “regrettably made a gratuitous reference, totally out of context, to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India.”
This prompted Tarar to respond to the Indian statement. He said that ‘gratuitous’ seems to be a ‘favoured word’ with the Indian delegation, which uses it ‘every time Kashmir is mentioned’.
“Suffice it to say that vocabulary cannot be a substitute for truth. If that were the case Noah Webster would be a prophet. I would just confine myself to giving an advice that we should not tackle important long- standing festering issues like Kashmir by just trying to cast them aside through such casual remarks,” he said.
In her second right of reply, Ms Khampa said Pakistan has made ‘untenable references’ about Jammu and Kashmir ‘which is and has always been an integral part of India’.
Ambassador Tarar came back again. He said the Indian delegate was making ‘mechanical retorts’, saying the UN resolutions on a key issue like Jammu and Kashmir reflect the voice of the international community.