Islamabad, Sep.20 (ANI): Pakistan Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani is back to singing his ‘K-tune’ by describing Kashmir as Pakistan’s jugular vein.
Interacting with a group of political leaders during an Iftaar party at the PM House here, Gilani said Islamabad’s policy on Kashmir was based on Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s stance that “Kashmir was the jugular vein of Pakistan.”
Referring to the government’s recent decision to grant internal autonomy to Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilani said Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir would remain unchanged.
“I want to express in clear and unequivocal terms that this decision of the government will not bring any change in Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir,” Gilani said.
Gilani blamed India of neglecting the long pending Kashmir issue and said that Pakistan wants a peaceful resolution to the dispute.
“We want to resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully and have invited India for negotiations, despite it repeatedly ignoring them,” The Daily times quoted Gilani, as saying.
Gilani said he had categorically told Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during their meeting at the margins of the NAM summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh earlier this year that resolving the issue was very important for establishing peace in the region.
“There could be no peace in the region until the Kashmir dispute was resolved according to the aspirations of its people,” he added. (ANI)
Twitter Gate: Congress will take action against Tharoor at the appropriate time: Tewari
New Delhi, Sep.18 (ANI): The Congress party on Friday said it would take appropriate action against Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor for his “cattle class” comments through the medium of Twitter at the appropriate time.
Addressing a party news conference in the capital, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said: “We will take appropriate action (against Mr. Tharoor) at the appropriate time.
Tewari further said that action against Tharoor was not ruled out.
He also justified Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s statement on Thursday seeking Tharoor’s resignation for what he called “irresponsible” comments on the social networking site Twitter.
“It was unfortunate and unbecoming on his part to make such comments. In my view he should tender his resignation as Minister,” Gehlot had said.
“To make such irreverent comments is all the more despicable when one is holding a responsible position as that of the Minister of State for External Affairs,” Gehlot told journalists at his official residence here after a “Roza Iftar” party on Thursday evening.
Gehlot had termed Tharoor’s references posted on the site such as “cattle class” and “holy cows” as unacceptable in Indian politics.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan also said Tharoor had no right to continue in the Union Cabinet.
“I believe that in a democracy, people are God. To refer to them as ‘cattle’ is an insult to them. And I believe that such a person has no right to be a Union minister,” he told reporters.
Tharoor, who is on an official visit to Liberia, had earlier apologized through the Twitter medium, saying he was “sorry” for hurting any sentiments and that his words had been misunderstood.
“To those hurt by the belief that my repeating the phrase showed contempt: sorry. It’s a silly expression, but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle. Many have misunderstood,” Tharoor said.
The minister said that he had learned belatedly of the fuss “over my tweet and pointed out that the phrase “cattle class” was used in the query, which he just repeated. (ANI)