Jaishankar’s ‘no discussion’ remark on Pakistan question: ‘Still a little perplexed by…’

India cannot allow cross-border terrorism to become the basis of starting a discussion with Pakistan, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

Jaishankar said it is not possible to have a normal relationship with Pakistan until there is an “abrogation of this policy of cross-border terrorism”, calling it a “fairly commonsense proposition”.

“Pakistan obviously is the exception when it comes to the neighbourhood. The fact is we can’t allow terrorism to be normalised. We can not allow that to become a basis to come into discussion with Pakistan,” Jaishankar said.

“To me, it’s a fairly commonsense proposition. If anything, I’m still a little perplexed by why we have not arrived at this position earlier. But we have arrived at it now,” the minister said.

“And the issue really is that until there is abrogation of this policy of cross-border terrorism, clearly it is not possible to have a normal relationship.”

Jaishankar was addressing a townhall meeting at India International Centre (IIC) in New Delhi.

On the handling of pro-Khalistani elements by the Canadian government, Jaishankar said it seems to be driven by vote-bank politics.

“Their responses have been constrained by what they regard as vote bank compulsions.”

“We have made it very clear that if there are activities in Canada that impinge on our national security or territorial integrity, then we will have to respond. You can see that this has impacted our ties in many ways in the last few years.”

Jaishankar’s rebuke

This is not the first time that Jaishankar has hit out at Canada for its apparent tolerance of pro-Khalistan elements. A major row erupted earlier this month after some Khalistan supporters floated a tableau depicting former prime minister Indira Gandhi and her assassins, who were the members of her security.

“Frankly, we are at a loss to understand other than the requirements of vote bank politics why anybody would do this…I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence,” Jaishankar had said while addressing the media.