Sneha Dubey is the country’s first Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). She is a 2012 batch IFS officer who completed her post-graduation in Geography. She then went on to achieve her MPhil from the School of International Studies. This school is present in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She is a young diplomat who spent most of her childhood in Goa and also completed her studies there. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from the Fergusson College in Pune. From a very young age, this girl aspired to join the Indian Foreign Services. So, she gave the required exam and passed the civil service examination. She did this in her very first attempt in the year 2011.
Sneha is the first in her family to join the government services. Her father works at a multinational company while her mother is a teacher. She wanted to become an IFS officer ever since she was 12 years old. According to her, the things which inspired her to join the foreign services were a combination of learning about international affairs, being a part of important policy decisions, traveling, the thrill of discovering new cultures and helping people. After the government selected her for the foreign services, she was first appointed to be in the Ministry of External Affairs as an Under Secretary. Later in August 2014, she was sent to Madrid to be the Third Secretary at the Embassy for India.
This self-made girl is very practical and made headlines after she slammed India’s neighbor Pakistan for supporting terrorism. She said this in India’s right to reply at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Dubey, in her fierce reply, said that this is not the first time Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has misused the platform of UNGA for carrying out his propaganda. She also clearly highlighted the fact that Pakistan is a country that provides ‘free pass’ to terrorists. They pay no heed to the ordinary people who continue to suffer because of their decisions.
Prime Minister Imran Khan raked up the issue of Kashmir in his address to the UNGA. To this, the Indian diplomat reiterated that the entire union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh “were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.” She also said that Pakistan is an ‘arsonist’ disguising itself as a ‘fire fighter’. The entire world had suffered because of its policies as the country nurtures terrorists in the backyard. Dubey continued, “Pakistan holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Osama bin Laden got shelter in Pakistan. Even today, Pakistan leadership glorifies him as a martyr.”
A few minutes after her speech, this brave girl who managed to hold a crucial position for India in the UN also won the hearts of millions of Indians. The Indians were impressed because of her fierce and well-documented reply to Imran Khan and the way she handled it. At the UNGA, she said, “Regrettably, this is not the first time the leader of Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the United Nations to propagate false and malicious propaganda against my country, and seeking in vain to divert the world’s attention from the sad state of the country he lives in where terrorists enjoy free pass while the lives of ordinary people, especially those belonging to minority communities are turned upside down.”
