S. Jaishankar said that Jammu and Kashmir were kept behind “for political reasons”.
New Delhi:
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar called the deletion of Article 370 – which gave Jammu and Kashmir its special status – “one of the greatest achievements” of the BJP-led central government. Speaking to Sanjay Pugalia, editor-in-chief of NDTV, who is part of NDTV’s “Decoding G-20” mega-conclave, Mr. Jaishankar said he was a member of the cabinet in 2019 and was involved in the decisions that were made.
“Some are still amazed at how we sustained this situation into 2019… How we allowed this situation to proliferate for so long,” he said.
When told that the biggest achievement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that Pakistan no longer pops up in media talks, Mr. Jaishankar laughed. “What can I say? It’s the market’s judgment in a way. Who wants to talk about losing shares,” he added, to laughter and cheers from the audience.
As for Jammu and Kashmir, the changes on the ground are hugely positive, he said. “I had gone there when I joined the government in 1979… I went to the same place in 2019… and I was amazed at how little had changed there between 1979 and 2019,” he said.
But the time warp in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, was artificial and politically motivated — both in India and abroad.
“Forget everything else, actually we kept that state backward for political reasons… I saw how the rest of the world used this issue, to pressure us, to harm us… and as people ask me in these five years To list our main achievements, I would definitely mention how we fought Covid… and I would certainly mention what we did with Article 370, because it has long-term benefits,” said Mr Jaishankar.
In his experience, the rest of the world has also accepted the move to Jammu and Kashmir, “only we are concerned about what people would say,” the minister added.
Mr Jaishankar’s comments come as a constitutional bench of five Supreme Court justices is hearing a number of petitions challenging the abolition of Article 370.
The hearing lasted 12 days, during which the Center cited positive changes in the former state, which was split into two Union territories in 2019 after its special status was scrapped. The government claims that support for terror has declined, business has been boosted and tourism is booming.
