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Congress apologist for Pakistan: BJP slams Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks
Distancing itself from Aiyar’s remarks, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that Aiyar “does not speak for the party in any capacity whatsoever”
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday criticised Congress over its senior party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks praising Pakistan and said that Congress had become an apologist of Pakistan and Pakistan-based terror.
Slamming the Congress for its party leader’s remarks, BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Be it Mani Shankar Aiyar or Sam Pitroda, it shows a pattern of the Congress’ ideology and policies. Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party has become an apologist for Pakistan, and Pakistan’s terrorism. Today again there will be an attempt from Congress to distance themselves from Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks.”
Aiyar’s statement suggesting that India should engage in diplomatic dialogue with Pakistan, respecting its nuclear capabilities, sparked controversy.
In a video clip of his interview with YouTube channel Chill Pill which went viral, Aiyar can be heard saying that Pakistan is a “sovereign” and “respected nation” and India must engage in “dialogue” with it.
“India should give respect to Pakistan as it has an atom bomb! If we don’t give them respect, they’ll think of using an atom bomb against India,” he had said.
He said that if India started respecting Pakistan, they would not think about detonating a bomb.
Responding to this, Chandrasekhar said, “Aiyar is doing Public Relations (PR) for Pakistan. He is suggesting that India should be fearful of Pakistan and respect Pakistan. This is the new Bharat. It will not be scared by anyone.”
Chandrasekhar further alleged that the Congress party is taking support from Pakistan’s terror-linked political parties like the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Popular Front of India (PFI) in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
“The Pakistani foreign minister has also officially recently supported Rahul Gandhi”, he added.
“I say with all the responsibility in my command that the Congress party today acts like, behaves like, talks like an apologist of Pakistan and Pakistan-based terror, and Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement is one clinching evidence of this pattern of Congress’ behaviour towards Pakistan,” Chandrasekhar said.
Meanwhile, distancing itself from Aiyar’s remarks, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that Aiyar “does not speak for the party in any capacity whatsoever.”
Also Read: ‘Unacceptable’: Congress distances itself from Sam Pitroda’s racist remark
The party and “indeed the entire nation recalls with pride that in December 1971 Pakistan was broken” and “on May 18, 1974, India’s nuclear capability”, Khera added.
Congress also said that the interview given by Aiyar was “several months ago”, which surfaced recently and alleged that the revival of the video was an attempt by the BJP “to deflect attention from Prime Minister Modi’s daily goof-ups.”
Khera shared a clip from the external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s interview with Smita Prakash and alleged that Jaishankar is “advising India to be afraid of China”. In the clip, Jaishankar can be heard saying that China is a “bigger economy” and “we as a smaller economy”, shall “we go pick a fight with them?”
Aiyar dismissed the resurfacing of the video featuring his remarks on Pakistan, stating that it is an old video being circulated to distract “as the BJP’s election campaign falters”. The Congress veteran pointed out that it was filmed several months ago and refused to engage in the BJP’s “game”.
