While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s engagements on the UNGA sidelines were development-oriented and his address at the top world forum was dignified and statesman-like, Pakistan resorted to jingoism, warmongering, and misuse of the highest global platform.
Delivering a message of universalism and stressing on the values of peace and harmony, PM Modi said the development “efforts are ours, but their fruits are for all, for the entire world”.
“The very core of our approach is public welfare through public participation and this public welfare is not just for India but for the entire world,” he declared.
“All our endeavors, are centered on 1.3 billion Indians. But the dreams that these efforts are trying to fulfill, are the same dreams that the entire world has, that every country has and that every society has,” he said.
“And this conviction of mine gets stronger every day, when I think of those countries, who, just like India, are striving for development, each in their own way,” he said after listing India’s achievements ranging from building 100 million toilets and health insurance world’s biggest health to opening 370 million bank accounts for the poor and the world’s biggest digital identification program.
Contrast to Modi
On the other hand, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday held out threats of a conventional war between the two nuclear-armed neighbors spinning out of control and the radicalization of Muslims in India and around the world in his address to the General Assembly.
Khan painted a chilling picture of bloodshed and terrorism as he attacked India in his extempore speech that lasted more than the 15 minutes allotted to him.
Imran Khan spoke after the two speakers who followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Giving his scenario for war, Imran Khan said that when the “curfew” is lifted in Kashmir there will be a bloodbath.
People will be out in the streets and the troops “will shoot them”, he said.
Kashmiris will be further radicalized and he predicted there will be another Pulwama.
Pakistan will be blamed for the reactions if a conventional war starts between the two nuclear-armed countries, anything can happen when a country faces one seven times its size, he said.
“There is no God but one” and “we will fight to the end,” he said as some in the gallery cheered and clapped.
He said that the world was not acting because of India’s market of 1.2 billion people and nations were putting markets above people.