Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday struck a powerful chord while addressing the Indian diaspora in Copenhagen, Denmark, firmly responding to anti-India slogans raised by a group of Pakistani nationals outside a venue hosting a visiting Indian parliamentary delegation. The protest, which attempted to disrupt India's global outreach efforts, was swiftly dismissed by Prasad as an act of sheer “desperation.”
“I was very surprised to see Pakistanis here raising slogans… our programme is going very well… we are getting wide coverage… their handlers in Pakistan must have told them to do something. They have come here in desperation. Pakistan is a desperate country that lives in desperation. Ignore them with impunity,” he stated, drawing strong applause from the audience.
Prasad didn’t stop there. With sharp words, he brought global attention to the ongoing human rights abuses in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Balochistan. “What kind of ill treatment in PoK people are suffering, do you know? They are crying to shift to India… in Balochistan, women are given the worst barbaric treatment possible… Pakistan is in great commotion today… We fought four conventional wars… none of this India started, we only responded and Pakistan lost all of them... ‘Jinnah ne banaya Pakistan, woh ban gayi General ki Dukan,’” he added, using a poignant metaphor to describe the military stranglehold over Pakistan’s democracy.
The Indian delegation in Copenhagen is comprised of leaders from across the political spectrum, exemplifying national unity. Alongside Ravi Shankar Prasad were BJP MP Daggubati Purandeswari, Samik Bhattacharya, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress MPs Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, former Union Minister MJ Akbar, and Ambassador Pankaj Saran.
Samik Bhattacharya used the platform to clarify India’s stand on terrorism: “We are not seeking help from anyone with folded hands. We are going everywhere in the world - and we have only one objective: to alert them that what is happening with us is bound to happen with them. Hence, this terrorism must be uprooted. Every Pakistani knows what they are; they can't even open a shop in the name of Pakistan outside their country, they use Indian names.”
Former Minister MJ Akbar did not mince words either. He accused Pakistan of duplicity and deception. “Even well-meaning friends will ask you, why don't you talk to Pakistan? Tell them Pakistan has a government with a double face, which face do we talk to? Pakistan has a government with a forked tongue; whose tongue do we address? Pakistan has talks with a poisoned tongue that gets hurt when a tongue is poisoned... The talks are nothing but a bluff. We now have a leader who has actually called the bluff, Narendra Modi… Nobody has made as much effort to bring a nation with a genetic disorder to its senses.”
Adding to the voice of collective Indian sentiment, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “I am from the same Shiv Sena that dug up the cricket pitch to not allow Pakistan to play a cricket match in India and with the same commitment, I'm part of the joint delegation that has come from all political parties to say that as Indians we stand one and nobody can divide us.”
