He also referred to the growing developmental divide between the North and the South, and also outlined an agenda of action needed to end the systemic apathy towards poverty. Global climate change also received mention in his speech, with the repeated offer to coordinate a Comprehensive Global Development dialogue. Besides, he expressed his belief that a stable global order rests on the pillars of peace, security, democracy and sustainable development.

Addressing the General Assembly Vajpayee remarked: "Yesterday we heard the extraordinary claim in this Assembly that the brutal murder of innocent civilians in Jammu and kashmir is actually a 'freedom struggle'. And that the forthcoming elections in that state are a 'farce', since they cannot be a substitute for a plebiscite demanded over 50 years ago".

Then he said it requires an effort of logical acrobatics to believe that carnage of innocents is an instrument for freedom and elections are a symbol of deception and repression. "If the elections are a mere fraud, why are terrorists being trained and infiltrated into India at the command of the Inter- Services Intelligence Agency of Pakistan to kill election candidates and to intimidate voters," he asked. The next questions was: "If Pakistan claims to be a crucial partner in the international coalition against terrorism, how can it continue to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India?".

The Prime Minister further asked: "How can the international coalition condone Pakistan-directed killing of thousands of innocent civilians--women and children included--to promote a bizarre version of 'self-determination'?" Vajpayee went on to state that those who speak of "underlying" or "root" causes of terrorism offer alibis to the terrorists and absolve them of responsibility for their heinous actions--such as the September 11 attacks on the United States or the December 13 attack on India's Parliament.

He lashed out at Pakistan government by stating that those who had to "adjust" voting and counting procedures to win a referendum--and achieved constitutional authority by the simple expedients of writing their own Constitution--are ill-placed to lecture others on freedom and democracy.

Vajpayee pointed out "another patently false and self-serving claim" that in India, Muslims and other minorities are the target of "Hindu extremists". With 150 million, India has the second Muslim population in the world, more than in Pakistan, he stressed. "We are proud of the multi-religious character of our society. Equal respect for all faiths, and non-discrimination on he basis of religion, is not just our Constitutional obligation. As the whole world knows, it is the signature tune of India's civilian and culture", he declared.

Earlier in his speech, Vajpayee told the General Assembly that the international community has taken some collective decisions in the global effort to combat terrorism and to choke off its lifelines. The UN Security Council Resolution 1373 contains the essence of those decisions. Its Counter-Terrorism Committee should now move beyond information compilation and legal assistance to enforcing compliance by states known to be sponsoring, sheltering, funding, arming and training terrorists, he added, a clear pointer to the military regime of Musharraf. "In our South Asian region, nuclear blackmail has emerged over the last few months as a new arrow in the quiver of state- sponsored terrorism. Dark threats were held out that actions by India to stamp out cross-border terrorism could provoke a nuclear war. To succumb to such blatant nuclear terrorism would mean forgetting the bitter lessons of the September 11 tragedy. As far as India is concerned, we have repeatedly clarified that no one in our country wants a war--conventional or otherwise. Nor are we seeking any territory," Vajpayee asserted.

Turning to the global developmental divide, the Prime Minister said that over the last decade, 10 million people have been joining the ranks of the poor each year, a quarter of the world's population lives in extreme poverty, a million lives are lost to malaria each year, and tuberculosis kills twice as many lives annually. One-fifth of humanity does not have access to safe drinking water.

"We have to find", he prescribed, "24 billion dollars annually for investment in poor countries if we are to achieve the World Food Summit goal of halving hunger by 2015". Vajpayee reminded the audience that it was this bleak picture that was addressed in the Millennium Declaration in 2000 with a time-bound road map for poverty eradication, with goals and targets to be achieve by 2015. The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development was an encouraging beginning in the effort to enhance international financing for development, he said but reminded that continuation of widespread poverty, at a time when unimaginable wealth is concentrated in a small social layer, is totally unacceptable.

Vajpayee also chalked out a programme of action in regard to poverty removal. 1) asymmetry in trading relations between developing and developed nations, the problem of declining prices for commodities from developing countries, and all unjustified barriers to their exports must be removed. 2) extreme volatility in global energy markets has been causing havoc with the trade and fiscal balances of developing countries. This must end. 3) unpredictability in global capital movements, which periodically devastate the economies of developing countries, must be controlled. 4) malfeasant corporate practices, which drain off the natural resources and traditional knowledge base of developing countries without fair compensation must be dealt with sternly.

Speaking on the climate change, he said the poor suffer from it the most, though they contribute the least to it. The recent floods and forest fires in Europe are a forewarning that the countries of Asia and Africa are not the only victims of the fury of a degraded environment. The earth's atmosphere and biosphere know no take urgent steps to protect the environment or be prepared for far worse natural calamities.

Early this month, "we emerged from the Johannesburg Summit for Sustainable Development with some encouraging outcomes, but these fell well short of the demands of our time", the Prime Minister warned, and observed "that the highways of development are jammed by the noisy and unruly traffic of materialism and its brash cousin, consumerism. Human values have become mute bystanders in most political, economic and social activities".

Hence, according to him, humanity is crying out for a harmonious integration of the economic, social, political, environmental and spiritual dimension of development. This task calls for the closest possible cooperation among nations and communities, with a readiness to accept the best from every cultural and spiritual tradition around the globe. The United Nations needs to take up newer and bigger initiatives in this direction. Vajpayee then said: "In this Assembly, less than a year ago-and in the US Congress the year before--I had extended Indias offer to coordinate a Comprehensive Global Development Dialogue. I reiterate that offer today. If we are to achieve the development goals we have promised ourselves by 2015, we need such a dialogue urgently".

At the end of his speech, he affirmed that there is a growing perception--particularly among the weaker and poorer countries-- that responses to issues of far-reaching impact often seem arbitrary or contradictory. Since a common destiny is at stake, the world needs collective multilateralism, and it needs the United Nations--the coming together and working together of all its nations in the development of a common and collective perspective.

In this opinion, democratic societies are far less prone to ideologies based on violence or militarist yearnings, since they do not have their fingers permanently on the trigger of a gun. We have to be vigilant against threats to democracy worldwide arising from forces that the opposed to it, be they rooted in fundamentalist political dogmas or extremist religious ideologies", Vajpayee stated.

"Most of us are agreed that a stable global order has to rest on the four strong pillars of peace, security, sustainable development and democracy. We have to ensure that each of these pillars is strong and resilient", the Prime Minister concluded.(ANI)

Pak shelling in Kargil meant to derail polls: NC candidate

Kargil, Sept. 13 (ANI): Political rallies like that of ruling National Conference party candidate Qamar Ali Akhoon are commonplace these days in Kargil town. Kargil, scene of the last military skirmish between India and Pakistan, goes to polls next Monday (September 16) in the first phase of elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Friday, Akhoon completed the last leg of his campaign tour to woo voters of the northern town.

Voting in Jammu and Kashmir has been split into four phases for different areas to allow security forces to be relocated in view of the threats by Kashmiri guerrillas who have called for a poll boycott.

Kargil lies in Ladakh, a region relatively free of guerrilla activities, but since it is close to the line of ceasefire with Pakistan, it has been the scene of intense shelling in recent days.

During his electioneering, Akhoon said that Pakistan was trying to derail the poll process in the Himalayan region. "We believe that recent shelling in our area from the Pakistani side is to derail and hinder the election process. Otherwise why would there be so much of shelling which caused disturbance to lots of people, specially in our Churtuk area. People were forced to leave their houses. I don't know why they are doing so," said the National Conference candidate.

"But when such kind of political events are being targetted, we believe that Pakistan is trying to hamper the election process. But we are not scared and are continuing with the campaigning," he added.

Akhoon, an incumbent legislator, is also a state Minister for Public Works and Power in the Farooq Abdullah government. Many voters in Ladakh, where Buddhists live in large numbers, have been demanding a separate province to accelerate development, and feel disillusioned with the politicians. Candidates independent of any political party want to set this right. Haji Nisal Ali, who is one such candidate, believes that conditions can improve only when politicians stay away from developmental work.

"The major requirements of this place is for a hill council, which can solve problems of the people living here, in which there should not be a single member of any political party. Rather it should work independently and solve their problems," Ali remarked

Ali is all set to give Akhoon a tough competition. Although an Independent candidate, he is supported by major political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is also backed by the two major Muslim organisations of the state, the Imam Khomeni Memorial Trust and the Islamic School Kargil. Both these organisations enjoy massive support from the Shia community. Kargil's Muslim population is 95 per cent Shia, and so this support is likely to yield rich benefits for Ali. With Zanskar, Leh and Nobra, Kargil makes up the four constituencies of mountainous Ladakh region of the troubled state.

About 219 polling stations have been set up across the district which has a population density of eight persons per square kilometer as against the state average of 99. In 1996, all the four seats in this district had gone to the ruling National Conference. This time around, however, the Leh and Nobra seats have been won unopposed by the Ladakh Union Territory Front, a federation demanding Union Territory status for the region.

New Delhi has promised a free and fair election after dubious polls in 1987 and 1996 fuelled the rebellion against its rule. But many Kashmiris fear the state's ruling National Conference party, a minor member of the national coalition government, will rig the result. (ANI)