Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar picks apart Pakistan and Canada on terrorism, Khalistan
File photo of India's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar believes New Delhi has made Pakistan's core policy of using "cross-border terrorism to force dialogue" irrelevant while affirming that Canada continues to give space to Khalistani forces.
In an interview with news agency ANI, the foreign minister reflected on the contents of his new book "Why Bharat Matters"and said: "What Pakistan was trying to do, not now but over multiple decades, was really to use cross-border terrorism to bring India to the table. That, in essence, was its core policy. We have made that irrelevant by not playing that game now."
"After all, at the end of the day, a neighbour is a neighbour, but it is that we will not deal on the basis of terms that they set where the practice of terrorism is deemed as legitimate and effective in order to bring you to the table," he added.
The Narendra Modi government has actively dissociated from engaging in any bilateral diplomatic discussion with Pakistan for a few years now. New Delhi is of the view that talks cannot be held until Islamabad continues to harbour non-state actors who sponsor terrorism in India.
In his first tenure, PM Modi made concrete efforts to engage Pakistan and sit across a table to discuss controversial issues. However, since his second term in 2019, Islamabad only finds a footnote in PM Modi's diplomatic conversations.
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Unfortunate state of politics
As for the Khalistan issue, Jaishankar said Canadian politics had given a safe space to the Khalistani forces who had been plotting against India.
"The issue at heart is the fact that in Canadian politics, these Khalistani forces have been given a lot of space and have been allowed to indulge in activities which I think are damaging to the relationship, clearly not in India's interest, and not in Canada's interest either. But unfortunately, that is the state of their politics."
The relationship between Canada and India has tanked ever since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year levelled allegations that New Delhi was involved in the killing of known Kahlistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
New Delhi vehemently denied the allegations but Canada doubled down on it with Trudeau siding with the Khalistanis on the issue.
(With inputs from agencies)