New Delhi,(Samajweekly) The government told Parliament on Thursday that it has rejected Pakistan’s “obsession” with “territorial aggrandisement” supported by cross-border terrorism. The government’s response was in a reference to Pakistan unveiling a new political map laying claim to Indian territory.
Replying to a written question on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said the government continues to respond “appropriately” to Pakistan’s malicious actions and propaganda, including on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir, at various international fora.
Pakistan had released the new map on August 4 laying claim to the Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and parts of Gujarat. “The government has rejected Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism,” the minister said in the written reply, calling the release of the map by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as “absurd”.
“It has also been emphasised that Pakistan should desist from laying untenable claims to Indian territories, which have neither legal validity nor international credibility,” he said.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs had a couple of days back responded on the issue of this map. In response to questions on the meeting of NSAs of SCO member states, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at the meeting of the National Security Advisers (NSAs) of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, hosted by the Chair of the SCO (Russia), the Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating.
“This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting. After consultation with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at that juncture. As was to be expected, Pakistan then went on to present a misleading view of this meeting,” the MEA spokesperson said.
