Pakistan People’s Party leader Bilawal Bhutto slammed for Kashmir rant
21 Sept 2014 6:41 AM IST
‘PPP will get back entire Kashmir’, says Bilawal
Bilawal Bhutto. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: India on Saturday termed as “far from reality” the comment of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari that his party will get back the entire Kashmir from it and asserted that the integrity and unity of India is “non-negotiable”.
“We are in the process of looking forward and looking forward does not mean that our borders will be changed. We made it very clear that as far as we are concerned, the integrity and unity of India is non-negotiable,” spokesperson in the external affairs ministry Syed Akbaruddin said.
He said the comment was “far from reality which takes us back into the past century”.
Addressing party workers in Multan region in Punjab on Friday, Mr Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had purportedly said his PPP would get back entire Kashmir from India. “I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistan,” said the scion of the highly influential Bhutto family.
When he made these remarks, he was flanked by former Prime Ministers Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf. The young leader, who has announced plans to contest the next general elections in 2018, heads the secular PPP which officially wants good ties with India.
His mother, former slain Premier Benazir Bhutto, was twice elected as Prime Minister while his maternal grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who founded the PPP in 1967, also served as Prime Minister in the 1970s. His father Asif Ali Zardari was Pakistan’s President from 2008 to 2013.
Meanwhile, the BJP has described the statement as “immature” and “childish” and said the territory would always remain an integral part of India. “Kashmir is very much a part of India and will remain so.
Any discussion on it is not acceptable to us. Kashmir resides in the hearts of Indians,” said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.
The party said that Pakistani leaders are known for making such provocative statements and India’s security forces are capable of protecting its territory and give a fitting reply to Pakistan, as it has in the past.
“The statement by Bilawal Bhutto is very immature and childish. Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so. Any attempt to eye Kashmir will be dealt with sternly as India is capable of protecting its territory,” said BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma.
Party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Pakistani politicians have always tried to make Kashmir a “parachute” of their politics.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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