New Delhi: “India stands vindicated. Masood Azhar is now a global terrorist. India is in safe hands. This marks a high point for the prime minister’s foreign policy,” said senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the United Nations move of listing Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.
BJP president Amit Shah was all praise for Modi after the listing. He said this was why India needs a strong and decisive leader. He tweeted, “Grateful to PM Narendra Modi and his diplomatic efforts that led to the UN designating Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. It was long over due. This also reflects PM Modi’s commitment towards Zero tolerance against terrorism.”
Calling UN’s move historic success for India, the BJP raised the slogan ‘Modi hai to mumkin hai’, ie., ‘It is possible if Modi is there’. While Union minister Prakash Javadekar said it was a big diplomatic victory for India under Modi’s rule, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said relentless efforts by Indian officials brought the dreaded terrorist to justice.
Meanwhile, opposition party leaders pointed out that references to the Pulwama terror attack on Indian Army soldiers were dropped by the UN.
Shashi Tharoor questioned, “Well that kind of deflates our satisfaction. If Masood Azhar wasn’t blacklisted at last because of Pulwama, then it logically has to be for all his previous sins. So is China admitting they erred in shielding him for 10 years and he was a terrorist pre-Pulwama too?”
Taking to twitter, Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah tweeted, “Is this true that the listing of Masood Azhar as a global terrorist was only possible because all references to Pulwama & terrorism in Kashmir were dropped?”
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav congratulated the Indian diplomatic corp for the tireless work that led to this “significant victory”. “We demand Pakistan immediately arrest him, freeze his assets and shutdown all organisations linked to him,” he said.
In what is termed as a huge diplomatic win for India, the United Nations on Wednesday designated Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blacklist him.