Pakistan epitomises ‘dark arts’, no takers for its ‘malware’: India at UNSC

In a hard-hitting response, India said Pakistan "epitomises the dark arts”, but there are no takers for its "malware” after Islamabad raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the UN Security Council.

“One delegation that epitomises the dark arts has, yet again, displayed its wares by peddling falsehoods earlier today. These we dismiss with disdain,” India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said on Thursday.

"My simple response to Pakistan is even though it is late, neighbour, heal thyself of your malaise. There are no takers here for your malware,” Akbaruddin said, addressing the UN Security Council open debate on ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security Upholding the United Nations Charter.' Akbaruddin's strong response came after Pakistan's envoy to the UN Munir Akram raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir while addressing the Council during the open debate.

The Pakistani envoy also raised the abrogation of Article 370, communications lockdown in Kashmir and referred to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistan after an aerial combat in February last year after New Delhi had conducted counter-terror operations in Pakistan's Balakot.

Akram called on the Security Council and Secretary General Antonio Guterres to “act decisively to prevent a disastrous war between Pakistan and India.” Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcating it into two union territories.

Reacting sharply to India's decision, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi and expelled India's high commissioner.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

In his statement to the Council, Akbaruddin said that it is increasingly acknowledged that the 15-nation Security Council faces crises of identity and legitimacy, as well as relevance and performance.

“The globalisation of terror networks; the weaponisation of new technologies; the inability to counter those resorting to subversive statecraft are showing up the shortcomings of the Council.” Akbaruddin noted that in a world constantly in flux, the challenges to international peace and security are a step ahead of the systems designed to tackle them.

“It is evident now that fires are all around the horizon. To undertake a fair evaluation of the available mechanisms without belittling their importance, we need to ask ourselves – are they still fit for the purpose of implementing the fundamental principles of the Charter?” He underscored the need for the Council to be part of the political tool kit to address ongoing and future threats to global peace and security, emphasising that the Council should represent current global realities and be fit for purpose.

“The answer to the crises the Council faces, lies in invoking and working through Charter provisions that provide for reform and change. We need a Council that is representative of current global realities, credible, and legitimate, rather than one that rests merely on the claim that it existed at the inception. The Council needs to be fit for purpose for the 21st century?” Alluding to Mahatma Gandhi's quote of ‘One must care about the world one will not see', Akbaruddin said resilient organisations are those that are not resistant to change, “or else current emergencies can turn into catastrophes, even while we continue our endless prevarication.

Humanity, it is said, progresses when it collectively rises to its responsibility to the future. It is now time to do that.” The Indian envoy said there is a case to be made for innovations that enlarge the vision of global rule of law. “It is possible that just as Generals often re-fight the last war, the drafters of the Charter responded to the factors and forces that led to World War II, without anticipating what we are now faced with.”

Further he said notwithstanding all its imperfections, the UN Charter is still the main incarnation of the global spirit. “Moving away from a formal system which is well understood, to one which is based on untested interpretations, may have unexpected consequences. Justice dispensed on the fly may come to be resented.”