Can talk to Pakistan, but not to ‘terroristan’, says Jaishankar
NEW YORK: India has no problem talking to Pakistan, but it has a problem talking to “terroristan”, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said here, asserting that Islamabad has created an entire industry of terrorism to deal with the Kashmir issue.
Jaishankar, addressing a New York audience at cultural organization Asia Society Tuesday, said when India decided to revoke Article 370 and bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, it drew a reaction from Pakistan and China.
Jaishankar underlined that revoking Article 370 has no implications for India’s external boundaries.
“We are sort of reformatting this within our existing boundaries. It obviously drew a reaction from Pakistan, it drew a reaction from China. These are two very different reactions. I think, for Pakistan, it was a country which has really created an entire industry of terrorism to deal with the Kashmir issue. In my view, it’s actually bigger than Kashmir, I think they have created it for India,” Jaishankar said.
He added that in the aftermath of India’s decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, Pakistan now sees its “investment” of 70 years undercut if this policy succeeds.
“So theirs is today a reaction of anger, of frustration in many ways, because you have built an entire industry over a long period of time,” he said. Jaishankar emphasised that the provision in the Indian Constitution which gave Kashmir a different status was a temporary provision.