We produced IITs and IIMs, you Jaish and Lashkar: Sushma Swaraj tears into Pakistan

Swaraj put terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the front and centre of her speech to the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday — it overshadowed all other themes, and occupied the major portion of her speech.

A day after India described Pakistan as “terroristan” and “land of pure terror”, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched a withering attack on its western neighbour, saying that while India created IITs, IIMs and AIIMS, Pakistan had produced Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Haqqani Network and Hizbul Mujahideen.

Swaraj put terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the front and centre of her speech to the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday — it overshadowed all other themes, and occupied the major portion of her speech. She mentioned Pakistan 15 times, and terror or terrorism 17 times. Last year, she had mentioned Pakistan six times, and terror or terrorism 18 times.

Unlike last year, she made no mention of Balochistan and Pakistani human rights violations. “We (India) produced scholars, doctors, engineers. What have you produced? You have produced terrorists,” Swaraj said in her speech in Hindi. “Doctors save people from death; terrorists send them to death… We produced IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and space reserach centre, you produced Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Haqqani Network and Hizbul Mujahideen.”

Minutes after her speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Incredible speech by EAM @SushmaSwaraj at the @UN! She has made India extremely proud at the world stage. http://nm-4.com/wdg5 #UNGA”, and “A strong message was given by @SushmaSwaraj Ji on the dangers of terrorism and why we have to unite and fight this menace. #UNGA”

In a speech punctuated by applause, Swaraj said, “I would like today to tell Pakistan’s politicians just this much, that perhaps the wisest thing they could do is to look within. India and Pakistan became free within hours of each other. Why is it that today India is a recognised IT superpower in the world, and Pakistan is recognised only as the preeminent export factory for terror?”

India, she said, had “risen despite being the principal destination of Pakistan’s nefarious export of terrorism”. She asked what Pakistan had offered “to the world and indeed to its own people” apart from terrorism, and said if only Pakistan had spent on its development what it has spent on developing terror, “both Pakistan and the world would be safer and better off today”.

Swaraj tore into Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who had, in his speech on Thursday, levelled accusations against India. “We are completely engaged in fighting poverty; alas, our neighbour Pakistan seems only engaged in fighting us,” she said. “On Thursday, from this dais, Pakistan’s prime minister wasted rather too much of his speech in making accusations against us. He accused India of state-sponsored terrorism, and of violating human rights. Those listening had only one observation: “Look who’s talking!” A country that has been the world’s greatest exporter of havoc, death and inhumanity became a champion of hypocrisy by preaching about humanity from this podium.”

Abbasi, Swaraj said, had recalled “old resolutions&rdq