External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday asserted that the ”illegal occupation” of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) will end and the region will become part of India.
“These days, a lot of things are going on at the PoK. You must have seen some incidents happening there. Now, the Modi government, we are very clear on this. (There is a) Parliament resolution, we are very clear that PoK is part of India. It was always part of India, it will be part of India,” he said during a media interaction in Mumbai.
”And we definitely have this intention… one day we will end the illegal occupation of the PoK and the PoK will join with India,” Dr Jaishankar said.
The minister also questioned those who opposed the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. “If I talk about the record, then in the last five years, one of our great achievements was on Article 370. And we will also say that the NDA’s record and the NDA’s thinking, the Modi government’s thinking is how we can integrate Kashmir with the country, how we can further develop Kashmir. On the other hand, you see those who wanted to run Article 370, who were interested in it. So this is also a very clear choice in front of the country,” he said.
Dr Jaishankar also commented on Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s remarks that “they (Pakistan) are also not wearing bangles” and will attack India, saying that some leaders are so afraid of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons that they believe India should not talk about PoK.
“Farooq Abdullah reminds us not to talk about PoK because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. We are proud of India’s nuclear weapons. On the contrary, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons seem to be more important. If it is Manish Shankar Iyer or Farooq Abdullah, they are so afraid of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons that they think that we should not talk about PoK.”
He said the BJP-led NDA is on the side of the CAA and wants to take it forward while the Opposition parties are prisoners of the vote bank.