UN should take stand against countries supporting terrorism: Venkaiah Naidu

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday expressed the hope that the United Nations would take a "categorical stand" against terrorism and "isolate" countries that fund and harbour terrorists.

He also said that terror had no religion, but religion is being used to influence young minds, and the world should take a stand against it.

"I am happy that the issue of terrorism is at the forefront of the government's foreign policy world over. Now, everybody is realising the pain. I hope the United Nations will take a categorical stand against terrorism and countries which are aiding, funding, training and harbouring terrorists. They (the countries) should be discouraged and identified, and the world should isolate them," the Vice President said, at the launch of a book "Securing India The Modi Way" written by Nitin A. Gokhale.

Naidu said that India was earlier struck with terrorism with lot of pain caused by meaningless and absurd policies of others. "Now, those countries are also affected, the West, the Europe and others. They are now feeling the pain with a broad consensus emerging."

He also sought some major steps against terrorism and securing of the border in the interest of security and development of the nation.

"If there is tension inside or on the border, there cannot be attention on development. Please understand. Tension and attention cannot go together. You must have attention towards development which is expected from a government in a democratic country.

"It is not only simply securing the border for nation but also securing the citizen for their right and bettering their livelihood opportunities, providing them enough opportunities worldwide...If you want to focus on development then you need to really divert your attention from those (terrorism). If you want to divert the attention, you must have to secure your border," the Vice President said.

He also said that terror did not have any caste, creed or religion, but religion is being used to influence young minds.

"Terrorism has no religion, unfortunately some people are trying to link up terror to religion by their own narrow political intent. It has to be understood terrorism has no religion, it has no creed, it has no sex also, there are even women terrorists also.

"Religion is used to influence, to mislead the younger generation... we should be wary of this and we should educate the younger people what are the evils of terrorism, how much it costs. Every country should speak in one voice, and political parties within the country also speak in one voice, they should not try to score brownie political points," Naidu added.

The book, which was released by Naidu, has contains inside stories of the two surgical strikes in Myanmar and across LoC, the attack on the Pathankot airbase, the recent stand-off between India and China at Doklam, and an overall analysis of India's security policy under the Modi government.

--IANS

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