Washington: India has charged Pakistan of
using `jihadi` elements to "destabilise" it and Afghanistan
and expressed willingness to normalise relations with
Islamabad if it takes one step towards peace.
"It (Pakistan) has been one of actually using jihadi
militants as an instrument of destabilisation in both
Afghanistan and India. And we think that`s wrong," Minister of
State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told a TV channel.
"Let me say one thing very clear to you. We actually
have a vision of a peaceful subcontinent. India is not
interested in being a threat to Pakistan or any other
country," Tharoor said.
"We want good relations with our neighbours. And we
actually believe, fundamentally at the strategic level, that a
peaceful, stable and prosperous Pakistan is in our interests,"
he said.
He recalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s statement
that India will meet Pakistan more than half-way if it takes
one step.
"He (Prime Minister) said this in our Parliament. It
takes a lot of political courage to do that when you`re
talking about a country from which assaults like the Mumbai
massacre have been launched against us," Tharoor said.
"All we`re asking is for Pakistan to show us enough
good faith, and it will be reciprocated with generosity and
conviction on the Indian side," Tharoor said.
When referred to Pakistan`s often repeated stand that
India has deployed a large number of its troops along the Pak
border, Tharoor said there is a history to that as all the
declared and undeclared attack to India has come from
Pakistan.
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"It looks like a chicken-and-egg situation, because we
would tell you that any attacks that have occurred in India
have occurred from that border," Tharoor said.
"There have been three wars, as you know, declared
wars with Pakistan. And there was an undeclared one in Kargil.
In every single one of those, the attacks began from the other
side, from what is today Pakistan, into India.
And therefore, for us not to have a defensive capacity
would be irresponsible," he said.
Tharoor asserted that India has never initiated
conflict, and never used any of these forces to constitute any
sort of threat.
The Indian Army on Pakistan border is in a purely
defensive posture.
"Don`t forget something else. Very bluntly, Pakistan
has nothing that India seeks -- except, we would like to see a
peaceful Pakistan," Tharoor said.
"Our big priority in foreign policy is actually
helping our own country to develop. We have 260 million living
below a poverty line that`s been drawn just this side of the
funeral pyre. We don`t want them to have their resources
diverted to needless and unproductive conflict," Tharoor said.
Responding to a question from the India-born host
Fareed Zakaria, Tharoor said there were too many examples in
the recent past of the right rhetoric -- "even the freezing of
bank accounts, which they now immediately open up under other
names, the banning of organizations which are promptly
reinvented under other labels".
"That sort of -- we`ve seen that movie before," he
said.
"What we want now is something new, something clear --
something that shows within Pakistan that it`s a clean break
from the condoning, at the very least, if not the actual
leading, of terrorist actions against India," he said.
Bureau Report
