It was the embattled man at the helm who underlined PoK's integral part of the country on Sunday. "PoK has always been an indispensable part of our nation. The Indian Parliament has declared this, categorically. But the encroachment was due to the negligence of responsible custodians. If the custodians fail, then every Tom, Dick, and Harry takes advantage of this," Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said.
He said the chance was lost in the early days of freedom to reclaim PoK from Pakistan, and now the nation was rediscovering that. Jaishankar said, "While we had forgotten that, it has now come back into our collective mind."
This criticism of past policies is not new for Jaishankar. He said in a recent speech in Hyderabad that the approach of India towards the Kashmir issue was historical. He even pointed out Sardar Patel's rejection of involving the UN in Kashmir, which Jawaharlal Nehru compelled.
Jaishankar warned against forgetting the origin of the Kashmir issue. He said the international pressure on India since 1947 until 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated was a long-term sufferance. He labeled the move as the correction of a long-term anomaly created in 1947.
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