The fast and furious, the explosive and implosive, the impassioned and extemporaneous whatsoever the speech by Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan at the UN General Assembly on Friday was called ; it undoubtedly rocked the world leaders.
Khan’s 45-minute long stirring speech sent tremors across the Muslim world, ripples of anxiety to the New Delhi’s Hindu nationalist government and provoked thoughts about Islam in the western world. He won a big applause worldwide for his charisma, boldness and straightforwardness in addressing the global and regional issues. Turk president Tayyip Erdogan was the first leader of the Muslim world who cheered Imran Khan for his emotive speech.
Prime minister Khan hit harder at the roots of Islamophobia in the West. He portrayed the true picture of Islam – discarding the moderate or radical Islam – that Islam is the only one that was preached by Muhammed (peace be upon him) the prophet of Islam. Khan said there was a misunderstanding after 9/11 attacks on the U.S. in the West regarding Islam, which is causing Islamophobia in the world.
“Terrorism has nothing to do with any religion,” Khan said. “No one did research that before 9-11, the majority of suicide bombers in the world were Tamil Tigers. They were Hindus. No one blamed Hinduism. And quite rightly. What does Hinduism got to do with what desperate people were doing in Sri Lanka?” he said.
He rocked the international conscience over the detention of 8 million people for nearly two months by Indian military in Kashmir. He apprised the world leaders of the advancing perils and apocalypse of a nuclear war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan over Kashmir dispute, which has been hanging fire in the UN resolutions for the past 70 years.
Khan said, “If a conventional war starts between the two countries, supposing a country seven times smaller is faced with a choice to surrender or fight to the end. When a nuclear country fights till the end it has consequences far beyond the borders.”
Though the climate scientists and human rights activists have been showing their grave concerns about the disastrous consequences of nuclear war killing millions and adversely affecting billions on this planet, yet the big powers and politicians seem more concerned about their economic and strategic agendas.
Khan exposed the Hindu supremacist mindset behind the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bungled August 5 Kashmir gambit that turned the Kashmir into a living hell of millions of people. In his explosive speech, Khan explained to world leaders the link of Modi – the leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing racist organization.
“Mr Narendra Modi is a life member of RSS. RSS was an organization inspired by Adolf Hitler and Mussolini came about in 1925. They believed in racial purity, racial superiority. They also believed they were an Aryan race like the Nazi believed they were an Aryan race. All that I am saying can be verified,” he told the UN General Assembly.
Exposing atrocities in Indian administered Kashmir and the ongoing curfew by the occupation forces, Imran Khan explained the background of the RSS “how can anyone do something like this?”
Khan is currently under fire of that Indian media, which is on fire with his fiery speech at the UNGA. What is the most bitter truth about today’s India is that the world’s largest democracy is led by Modi, a Hindu supremacist who was involved in the mass murder of Muslims – India’s biggest minority – in Gujrat as chief minister in 2002 and who won elections by delivering hate speeches against Muslims and Pakistan. Modi even took the political mileage of the Pulwama terrorist attack in February in Indian administered Kashmir and created war hysteria against Pakistan just to secure an electoral victory for the second term.
Khan warned of a bloodbath in Jammu and Kashmir, once the curfew is lifted. Khan who already declared himself as ambassador of the oppressed people of Kashmir stirred concerns about the consequences of the silence of world community over atrocities and human rights abuses in Kashmir.
In response to the US president Donald Trump’s mediation offer on Kashmir dispute, New Delhi every time repeated its old mantra of bilateralism and bluntly rejected third party mediation in the dispute. Where does the India’s bilateralism stand after its unilateral decisions on August 5 like abolition of autonomous status of Kashmir, enforcement of curfew, massive crackdown on Kashmiris and imposition of communications blackout in a territory documented as ‘disputed’ under UN security Council resolutions. India’s unilateralism is blatant violation of Simla Pact 1972 and it has dumped all chances of bilateral negotiations on Kashmir.
At least one thing, if not many, Imran Khan achieved in his mission Kashmir, is that the Kashmir has been internationalized as a nuclear flashpoint in South Asia raising the concerns of world community about the catastrophic effects of a nuclear war on this planet. Time calls for implementation of UN Security Council’s own resolutions demanding a plebiscite in Kashmir.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Geopolitics.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider is a contributing analyst at South Asia desk of Wikistrat. He is a freelance columnist and the author of several books including the ‘Economic Development of Balochistan’.
