S Jaishankar said, “I think it’s important to have a historical context to judge these remarks. This is not a conversation that began on August 5
Washington: Describing the abrogation of article 370 as a “long-awaited” step and the “right thing” to do, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said it is expected from Pakistan to pull out all stops to challenge the decision as it has made a deep investment in fuelling terrorism in Kashmir.
Mentioning that the Indian security forces have exercised the highest degree of restraint in Jammu and Kashmir after August 5, Jaishankar told a Washington audience that he expects Pakistan to continue what it has been doing for the past several decades.
“What do you expect the Pakistanis to say we expect calm and happiness to return,” said Jaishankar in response to a question during his appearance at The Heritage Foundation, a top American think-tank.
“No, Pakistan will not. They will paint apocalyptic scenarios because the one that is their wish and two that’s actually what their game plan has been for 70 years,” said Jaishankar.
The external affairs minister Jaishankar was responding to a question on recent remarks by top Pakistani leadership alleging that India would raise a false flag and blames Islamabad for any terrorist attack after the recent security and communication restrictions are implemented in Kashmir.
Jaishankar said“I think it’s important to have a historical context to judge these remarks. This is not a conversation that began on August 5. These are their policies and their actions which began the day Kashmir acceded to India with Pakistani invaders threatening to burn down Srinagar. Please look at the history of Kashmir,”.
As such there is a lot out there that needs to be taken into account, noting that India’s endeavor will be to “manage this as well as it can”.“I’m reasonably confident we should succeed out there,” he added.
“We have also seen a lot of alarmists rhetoric coming (from Pakistan), not just about the false flag, jihad… going all the way to nuclear weapons. That kind of gives you a sense of responsibility of the people who are saying,” the minister said.
Responding to another question on India’s action plan on getting back Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir, Jaishankar said that the territory is under illegal occupation of Pakistan.
“The point I was making was a very simple one. My sovereignty and my jurisdiction are laid out by my maps. My maps have been there for 70 years. And naturally, if I have a claim, as you would have a claim, as anybody would have a claim, we would hope one day that if there are territories in your claim of which you don’t have physical jurisdiction one day, you will. It’s as simple as that,” added Jaishankar.
Jaishankar further said the abrogation of article 370 was huge step.
“What the Indian Government has done was long-awaited. In my view, it was the right thing to have been done. It should have been done many years earlier,” he said.
“At the moment, given the fact that there have been such deep investments made by Pakistan in Kashmir, both in terrorism and in a kind of separatism we don’t expect this to be uncontested,” he said.
India’s strategy is obviously to reason with people and get them to understand why all of this is for their long-term benefit, he added.
“Clearly our intention is that they would buy into that” so that there is likely success of this new policy, he said further. In that interim period, he asserted, India will take precautions, because past history has shown the need for precautions.
The Indian government will fail in its duty if it does not take that call, Jaishankar said, adding that instructions given to the security forces have been to exercise extreme restraint.
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