India's revocation of Article 370 has national Foreign Minister Jaishankar

Helsinki: “The epicentre of global terrorism is right there in the country’s neighbourhood, and the cross-border terrorism has cost more than 40,000 lives in the last three decades. Thus, the abrogation of Article 370 has “National Security Connotation”,” said India’s Foreign Minister Jaishankar.

Foreign Minister Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to Finland and has effectively been voicing the Indian stand on Jammu-Kashmir. Recently, Pakistan raised the Kashmir question during the session of the European Union parliament. At that time, Finland had refused to support Pakistan and had stood by the side of India instead. Some members of the parliament had heavily criticised Pakistani terrorism. Furthermore, these members demanded that Pakistan should handover the PoK which is illegally seized by Pakistan, to India as Pakistan has nothing to do with Kashmir.

Against this background, the Indian Foreign Minister has reached Finland and met its Prime Minister and Foreign Minister for discussions. It is said that along with the bilateral relations, the topic of terrorism was also at the forefront. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, on Friday, delivered a speech at the ‘Finnish Institute of International Affairs’.

Jaishankar presented the Indian stand on article 370, emphatically, during his lecture on the topic of ‘India and the World – Priorities of Indian Foreign Policy’. The Foreign Minister attacked Pakistan, saying that India does not have a normal neighbourhood, like most countries. Its neighbourhood is the epicentre of global terrorism. Foreign Minister Jaishankar pointed out that Pakistan has killed more than 40,000 Indians, carrying out terrorist attacks in India, over the last three decades. This compelled India to take some decisions, given national security. Removal of article 370 was one of them.

“India has made this decision with the intent of improving governance and development,” Foreign Minister Jaishankar reiterated his support for the decision. At the same time, he also urged Pakistan to accept the truth in his address.

Since the last few days, Pakistan has intensified the accusation against India that it is trampling the human rights in Jammu-Kashmir. It is for this purpose that the Pakistanis settled in the United States and Europe are being used wherein Pakistan has been staging protests against India through them. It is Pakistan’s offensive strategy to use the sensitivity of the European countries towards human rights for its selfish political gains. Therefore, it has become imperative for India to inform the European countries that the Kashmir issue is closely linked to Pakistani terrorism.

Therefore, the efforts made by Foreign Minister Jaishankar, during the Finland visit, to unmask the terrorist face of Pakistan before the world become politically important. It appears that the Indian campaign against Pakistan will intensify further. However, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has initiated efforts to ensure that there are no further allegations of terrorism against Pakistan. Imran Khan has appealed to the Pakistani people that no one should be engaged in any terrorist activities in Kashmir as it will be detrimental to the interest of the Kashmiri people.