‘Our expectation levels with the Pakistanis never very high’, says S Jaishankar on Bilawal Bhutto’s comments

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar took aim at his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto and said that India’s expectations from the Pakistanis have never been very high. Jaishankar's comments came amid a fireside chat with India Today Group Editor (Publishing) Raj Chengappa at the Indo-Japan India Today Conclave. 

“Well, let’s put it this way. Our expectations levels with the Pakistanis are never very high,” Dr. Jaishankar said on Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India. When asked about the External Affairs Ministry’s response regarding the same, Jaishankar said that it is out in the public domain. 

In his UN address, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called PM Modi the “butcher of Gujarat” and said, “I want to tell India that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India.” 

He added, “He was banned from entering this country until he became the Prime Minister. This is the Prime Minister of the RSS and the Foreign Minister of the RSS. What is the RSS? The RSS takes inspiration from Hitler’s ‘SS’.”

Commenting on Bilawal Bhutto’s “uncivilised outburst”, the MEA said these remarks are a new low even for Pakistan. The MEA statement accused Pakistan of harbouring 126 UN-designated terrorists and 27 UN-designated terrorist entities. 

The statement further read, “Pakistan FM’s frustration would be better directed towards the masterminds of terrorist enterprises in his own country, who have made terrorism a part of their state policy. Pakistan needs to change their own mindset or remain a pariah.” 

Zardari’s comments came after S Jaishankar accused Islamabad of sheltering 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. 

The minister noted, “While we search for the best solutions, what are those that we must never accept include the normalisation of such threats. The question of justifying what the world regards as unacceptable should not even arise. It certainly applies to states’ sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. Nor can hosting Osama bin Laden and attacking a neighbouring Parliament can serve as credentials for sermonising before this council.”

Jaishankar’s indictment of Pakistan came after Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks on the Kashmir issue. Bhutto said that the UN should allow the implementation of the UNSC resolution in Kashmir to prove that multilateralism succeeds and that India can succeed and deliver peace in the region under the UN presidency. 

While addressing reporters at the UN headquarters, Jaishankar called Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism and also recalled former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comment on “snakes in one’s backyard.” 

Jaishankar said, “the world today sees them (Pakistan) as the epicentre of terrorism. Now I know we’ve been through two-and-a-half years of COVID and a lot of us have brain fog as a result. But I assure you the world has not forgotten where terrorism emanates, who has their fingerprints over a lot of activities in this region and beyond the region.”

Clinton had famously said during her 2011 Islamabad visit, "It's like that old story - you can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually, those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard."

Also read: India Today Indo-Japan Conclave 2022: Japanese businesses make ‘far more serious investments’ in China, ASEAN than in India, says Dr S Jaishankar 

Also read: ‘New low, even for Pakistan’: India condemns Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks against PM Modi