UNITED NATIONS , SEP 28 -
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday he wants to hold
bilateral talks with neighboring Pakistan "without a shadow of
terrorism," a day after Pakistan's prime minister expressed frustration
with stalled talks over Kashmir.
In his first address to the U.N. General Assembly since his resounding
election victory in May, Modi also invoked India's Hindu and ascetic
traditions, saying they might provide answers to climate change and
called for an International Yoga Day.
Modi appeared to chastise Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had
used his own General Assembly address on Friday to blame India for the
collapse of the latest talks over Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed
in full by both countries.
"By raising this issue in this forum," Modi said in Hindi, "I don't
know how serious our efforts will be, and some people are doubtful about
it."
Last month, India announced it was withdrawing from the planned peace
talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbors over Pakistan's plans to
consult Kashmiri separatists beforehand.
India was willing to discuss Kashmir with Pakistan, Modi said, so long
as those talks are in "an atmosphere of peace, without a shadow of
terrorism."
India says Pakistan supports separatist militants that cross from the
Pakistan-controlled side of Kashmir to attack Indian forces. Pakistan
denies this, saying India's military abuses the human rights of
Kashmiris, most of whom are Muslim.
Modi, India's first Hindu-nationalist prime minister in a decade,
embraces a strain of politics that maintains India's culture is
essentially Hindu, although his Bharatiya Janata Party says such a
culture is welcoming to other religions.
He has said fears that he will favor India's Hindu majority over its
large religious minorities, including some 170 million Muslims, are
unfounded, and his comments on spirituality in his address are likely to
be scrutinized for evidence of this.
Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when days of religious riots
raged across the northwestern state in 2002 after a Muslim mob set
alight a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, killing 59 people. More than
1,000 people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims.
Critics have accused Modi of allowing the riots to happen, but courts have found no evidence to indict him.
In his address on Saturday, Modi invoked the "ancient wisdom" of
India's Vedic era, during which Hinduism's most sacred texts were
written.
He also encouraged more people to take up yoga, the spiritual practice that predates the Islam's arrival in India.
"Yoga should not be just an exercise for us, but it should be a means
to get connected with the world and with nature," Modi said as he called
on the United Nations to adopt an International Yoga Day.
"It should bring a change in our lifestyle and create awareness in us, and it can help fighting against climate change."
On Saturday evening, Modi appeared on stage before some 60,000 people
at the Global Citizen Festival in New York's Central Park, where
performers including Jay Z, Sting, No Doubt, Carrie Underwood and The
Roots, were backing a campaign to end global poverty and bring basic
essentials such as sanitation to all - an effort the Indian leader is
pushing at home.
Modi will get more rock star treatment on Sunday, when he is due to
speak at Madison Square Garden, where a crowd of more than 18,000 is
expected.
After his U.N. address, Modi met privately with the prime ministers of
Nepal and Bangladesh and the president of Sri Lanka at his hotel. No
talks were planned with Sharif or other Pakistani officials because they
did not ask to meet, according to the Indian delegation.
While in New York, Modi is also due to receive visits from a parade of
powerful political and business figures, including Bill and Hillary
Clinton, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Israel Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the chief executive officers of Boeing Co ,
BlackRock Inc , IBM and General Electric Co , among others.
Next week, less than a decade after the United States denied him a visa
under a law barring entry to foreigners who have severely violated
religious freedoms, Modi is due to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama
at the White House.
His trip to the United States got off to an awkward start on Friday
after a little-known human rights group filed a lawsuit against him in
New York, alleging that he failed to stop the Gujarat riots. Washington
and New Delhi brushed off the suit, saying it would not affect the
visit.
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