Ramesh Chandran
Times of India News
Posted on
TitlTerrorism, dialogue don't go together: PM Author: Ramesh Chandran Publication: Times of India News DatSeptember 9, 2000 NEW YORK: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his address to the United Nations Millennium Summit stated that "terrorism and dialogue do not go together" and that the "acid test of sincerity of purpose is not words but deeds". In a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf's remarks to the gathering on Thursday, Vajpayee with razor-sharp rhetoric said that "many statesman like words have been delivered from this high tribune - unfortunately, some of them are an Orwellian mockery". The Prime Minister's contention was that "those who stifled democracy at home, speak of freedom from this forum" and those who have "engaged in the clandestine acquisition of nuclear weapons and delivery systems talk of ridding South Asia of these". In this scathing vein, he continued that those who had "repudiated solemn covenants talk of new agreements to prevent war" and that the authors of a "vicious terrorist campaign that has claimed more than 30,000 innocent lives in India and who had actively sabotaged a historic peace initiative" were now offering new initiatives for dialogue. Prime Minister Vajpayee made no overt references to Kashmir but instead focussed on the violent cross-border terrorism exported from the neighbourhood and spoke on expansive issues ranging from the need of a new financial architecture to strengthen multilateral institutions, the universal concern over the debt burden, the need for economic interdependence to be based on the principle of non-discrimination and of course the universal demand for nuclear disarmament. Vajpayee told the UN gathering that India had been compelled to conduct nuclear tests because the spread of nuclear weapons in the neighbourhood had made it "especially vulnerable". But he added: "Nevertheless, our policy is based on responsibility and restraint and we continue to press for universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament with undiminished commitment even while safeguarding our strategic space and autonomy in decision-making." After all, he pointed out that international peace cannot be divorced from the need for equal and legitimate security for all. Vajpayee also signalled India's support for the UN Secretary-General's proposal for an international conference to address nuclear dangers. The Prime Minister also referred with some degree of emphasis for an early expansion and reform of the UN Security Council particularly bringing in new permanent members from developed and developing countries so that it reflected the new realities of the 21st Century. India has campaigned long and hard for security council membership. Vajpayee told the gathering that India believed it had qualified by "objective criteria" being the "world's largest democracy, that had enormous potential, a rapidly growing economic power and a major contributor to peace-keeping operations" and consequently it has a "natural claim" to a permanent seat at the Security Council. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Overseas Friends of the BJP (USA) .............. Voic(718) 271-0453 54-15, 108th St. ................................. Fax: (718) 271-1906 Corona, NY 11368............................ WWW: http://www.ofbjp.org BJP's Websithttp://www.bjp.org Worldwide Friends of the BJ http://www.ofbjp.org/fob
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