Pakistan’s Interior Minister said Modi as India’s PM would ‘destabilise’ regional peace
Displaying uncharacteristic unanimity on an issue involving Pakistan, the Congress and BJP on Tuesday lashed out at Islamabad for its remark that a Narendra Modi-led Government would “destabilise” peace in the region and asked it not to interfere in the country’s electoral process.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi lekhi hit out at Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s “uncalled for inferences” on Modi’s questioning of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s “efforts” to bring fugitive criminal Dawood Ibrahim back to India.
“How is an internal comment questioning Shinde provoking PakistanIJ Please don’t interfere between two democratic parties questioning each other,” she said adding that India believes in non-interference in the affairs of other countries “except when it involves decapitation of bodies of Indian soldiers”.
The BJP also went on to tell Pakistan to “mend” its ways, saying the “manner” in which it has been functioning with India “will not work” anymore. The two parties came together while reacting to the Pakistani Interior Minister’s hawkish remark on Tuesday that Modi, if elected as India’s Prime Minister, would “destabilise” regional peace. The Congress said the remark was “condemnable and unfortunate”.
Congress leader and Union Minister Manish Tewari said Khan’s statement was very unfortunate, condemnable and the Pakistani Government must do introspection on it. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit, meanwhile, said Pakistan has an “interest” in the ongoing elections but “our assessment won’t make a difference”.
“Whoever forms the new Government, we would definitely want to get along and solve the issues between the two nations,” he told reporters in Mumbai. “You can vote for whomsoever you want. We want to start the peace dialogue with the new Government as soon as possible,” he added.
“Peace through a peaceful process is very important. We have had wars in the past, but it did not help much,” Basit said, adding that the dialogue must be “comprehensive, uninterruptable and uninterrupted”.
“let us not re-invent the wheel every time we meet. We share a history. Why hype around disagreements... We need to deal in a peaceful manner,” he urged. Basit said that India and Pakistan have been talking now for decades, but now they need to “walk the talk”. He however conceded that neither side had “a magic wand to fix everything overnight”.
lekhi said Modi had never talked about attacking Pakistan and was instead questioning Shinde’s attitude of making public the Government’s efforts to bring back underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who is stated to be in that country.
“We will tell Islamabad to mend their ways, the manner in which they have been functioning and trying to work with India will not work,” lekhi said. “What I do not understand is, this person, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is the Interior Minister, is he admitting to the presence of Dawood Ibrahim in PakistanIJ
Pakistan’s Interior Minister said those who are giving statements that Pakistan is sheltering Dawood and launching operations on Pakistani soil “should realise that neither is Pakistan a weak country to be afraid of such threats, nor can the Pakistani nation be impressed with such irresponsible statements.”