On October 7, 2025, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) became the stage for a heated exchange between India and Pakistan, reigniting old wounds and casting a spotlight on the enduring tensions that define their relationship. The debate, officially convened to address the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, quickly veered into a pointed confrontation over historical atrocities, human rights records, and the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, led the charge for New Delhi. Harish, a seasoned diplomat who took up his post in New York just over a year ago, is no stranger to high-stakes diplomacy. With a career that spans postings in Germany, Vietnam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and with the Palestinian Authority, Harish has built a reputation for directness and a refusal to mince words. At the UNSC, he found himself once again in the familiar position of defending India’s record while turning the tables on Pakistan’s persistent accusations.
The flashpoint came when Pakistan’s representative, Saima Saleem, alleged that Indian forces had subjected women in Jammu and Kashmir to sexual violence and other human rights abuses. Saleem insisted that Kashmiri women’s voices were being erased from the global conversation on peace and security. This, she argued, undermined the universality of the UNSC’s Women, Peace, and Security agenda.
Ambassador Harish’s response was swift and uncompromising. “Every year, we are unfortunately fated to listen to the delusional tirade of Pakistan against my country, especially on Jammu and Kashmir — the Indian territory they covet,” he said, as reported by multiple outlets including The Hindu and Times of India. He dismissed the allegations as “baseless and politically motivated,” characterizing them as yet another attempt by Islamabad to distract from its own troubling record.
Harish didn’t stop there. In a pointed reference to recent events, he cited a Pakistani airstrike in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that reportedly killed 30 civilians, including children. “A country that bombs its own people and commits systematic genocide can only resort to exaggeration and propaganda to divert attention,” Harish declared, according to NDTV. The message was clear: Pakistan’s credibility on human rights, especially regarding women, was deeply compromised.
But the most forceful part of Harish’s rebuttal reached back into history. He invoked Operation Searchlight, the notorious 1971 military crackdown by the Pakistani army in what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). “Pakistan conducted Operation Searchlight in 1971 and sanctioned a systematic campaign of genocidal mass rape of 400,000 of its own women citizens,” Harish stated. This military operation, launched on March 25, 1971, under General Tikka Khan—infamously dubbed the “Butcher of Bengal”—saw widespread civilian killings and sexual violence as the Pakistani military sought to crush Bengali nationalism.
“This is the same country which carried out Operation Searchlight in 1971 and sanctioned a systematic plan of mass rape against 4 lakh women by its army,” Harish reminded the council. “The international community is watching Pakistan’s propaganda. The truth is already known.” His words, echoed across Indian and international media, reignited global discussions about one of the most underreported genocides in modern history.
While Operation Searchlight remains a dark chapter for South Asia, it’s rarely invoked so bluntly in diplomatic forums. According to academic historians and human rights organizations, hundreds of thousands of Bengalis were killed, and up to 400,000 women were subjected to mass rape during the operation. The violence ultimately led to the Bangladesh Liberation War, culminating in Pakistan’s defeat and the birth of Bangladesh. Harish’s intervention at the UNSC was a reminder that, for many, the wounds of 1971 are far from healed.
India’s representative also used the opportunity to reaffirm New Delhi’s position on Jammu and Kashmir. “Jammu and Kashmir was, is, and shall forever remain an integral part of the country,” he said, flatly rejecting Pakistan’s attempts to internationalize the issue. This stance is not new, but the context—coming amid a debate on women’s rights and peacekeeping—underscored India’s determination to keep the narrative focused on its terms.
In fact, India’s broader diplomatic push over the past year has seen it repeatedly call out Pakistan’s record at global forums. Just a week earlier, at the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, India’s delegation criticized Pakistan for “rampant state-sponsored persecution and systemic discrimination” of minorities. “We find it deeply ironic that a country with one of the world’s worst human rights records seeks to lecture others,” said Counsellor KS Mohammed Hussain, representing India. “Their attempts to misuse this forum with fabricated allegations only expose their hypocrisy.”
Harish also took pains to highlight India’s contributions to the global Women, Peace, and Security agenda. “Our pioneering record on the Women, Peace and Security agenda is unblemished and unscathed,” he said, as quoted in Indian Express. He pointed to India’s history of deploying women in peacekeeping roles as early as the 1960s, when Indian women medical officers served in the Congo. “What distinguishes India's peacekeeping legacy is not merely the scale of our contribution, but our pioneering recognition of women as indispensable agents of peace,” Harish explained. This, he argued, was not just symbolic but a practical acknowledgment of women’s essential role in effective peacekeeping.
In February 2025, India hosted the International Conference on Women Peacekeepers from the Global South, drawing participants from 35 nations. The two-day event tackled issues ranging from sexual exploitation and abuse to the use of technology in peacekeeping. The conference, Harish noted, was more than a talk shop—it was a platform for developing actionable strategies to increase women’s participation and impact in future peace missions.
For observers, India’s forceful intervention at the UNSC was as much about setting the record straight as it was about shaping the global narrative. By confronting Pakistan’s accusations head-on and invoking historical atrocities, India sought to reframe the conversation from allegations and counter-allegations to a reckoning with evidence-based history. The message to the international community was clear: platforms like the UNSC should not be used for propaganda, and historical truths must not be rewritten.
As the debate wound down, it was evident that the scars of 1971 and the unresolved question of Kashmir remain powerful levers in South Asian diplomacy. For now, India’s robust defense at the UNSC has reminded the world that the past is never far from the surface in the region’s most contentious disputes.
