The Government of India is accountable to the people of the country and thus has rules and norms to follow during a conflict, unlike Pakistan, Minister of External Affairs (MEA) S Jaishankar said on Sunday. With the civil society and media to answer to, it would be unjust and unreal to compare India's decisions to those being made by Pakistan, he added.
The Pakistani Army holds an "ideological hostility" towards India, which is the root cause of many problems that the country faces, the minister reportedly said. Jaishankar said that the terror training camps and infiltration are part of this hostility against India in the Pak Army. While there are challenges, there is no need for India as a country to get over-obsessed by Islamabad, and New Delhi will "deal with it", the minister said.
"When you look at the terrorism, when you look at the training camps, when you look at the sort of policy of a kind of, I would say, almost ideological hostility towards India, where does that come from? It comes from the army. I can only say that at the end of the day, look at the state of Pakistan and, you know, see the differentials and the capabilities and, frankly, the reputation on either side. I think, look, we should not get over-obsessed and hyphenate ourselves with them," S Jaishankar was quoted as saying by NDTV.
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"I think where India is concerned, there are things we do, and there are things we don't. We have rules, we have norms. If we take any step, we are accountable in this country, to the people, to the media, to the civil society. I think it would be unreal to compare ourselves with them, and in many ways, we would be doing ourselves an injustice," he further told the media.
Asim Munir’s silent coup in Pakistan
The Minister was also asked about his impression about Pakistani army chief Asim Munir. "Like there are good terrorists and bad terrorists, there are good military leaders and not-so-good ones," he reportedly said.
Pakistan's defence ministry on Friday officially notified the appointment of Field Marshal Asim Munir as the first Chief of Defence Forces (CDF). Last month, the parliament passed the 27th Constitutional Amendment, creating a new post of CDF with the objective of a unified command and expediting decision-making in critical situations.
ALSO READ | There is now only one power czar in Pakistan—Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir
The CDF replaced the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), a position now abolished. The new arrangement consolidates operational, administrative and strategic authority in a single office.
Asim Munir was appointed as Army Chief in November 2022 initially for three years, but his tenure was extended in 2024. He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal just days after the four-day conflict with India in May, and is only the second military officer in Pakistan's history to be elevated to the position, after Field Marshal Ayub Khan in the 1960s.
