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India wants cordial ties with Pakistan but Islamabad must 'change its approach': Rajnath Singh

Indian home minister while visiting Kashmir says they made their intentions clear to Pakistan on Modi's oath-taking

Web Desk July 02, 2015

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh. PHOTO: REUTERS

SRINIGAR: Despite the tone and tenor of its recent actions, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday that his country desired cordial relations with Pakistan, but asked Islamabad "to change its approach" for this to happen.

"I want to say from the depth of my heart that we want good and friendly relations with Pakistan. It is our policy to have cordial relations with all our neighbouring countries, including Pakistan," Singh told reporters on the concluding day of his two-day visit to Indian Kashmir.

Read: Onus of normalising bilateral relations on Pakistan: Arun Jaitley

Sindh said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to attend his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014 to "demonstrate India's urge for peaceful and normal relations with that country."

"We made our intentions clear on the day of the oath-taking ceremony (of Modi). If it was not our intention to improve relations with Pakistan, perhaps our prime minister would not have invited Sharif," he explained.

Referring to former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's comment on Pakistan that “friends change, but neighbours don't,” Singh said, "We also believe in that. There will be no let up in our efforts but Pakistan will have to think about it (too). It takes two hands to clap."

Read: Pakistan willing to have normal relations with India: foreign secretary

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry last month said Pakistan wanted to have a “normal” relationship with India, for which there is also a political consensus in the country, but Islamabad’s efforts were not being reciprocated by New Delhi.

Chaudhry said it was the Indian government, and not Pakistan, which had put a stop to the Indo-Pak dialogue.

In the recent weeks, both the countries have accused each other of sponsoring terrorism with a war of words continuing from both sides.

The article originally appeared on One India

COMMENTS (24)

maz | 9 years ago | Reply @Raj - USA: rubbish comment

Rabail | 9 years ago | Reply The above statement given by the Indian home minister about establishing cordial relations with Pakistan makes one wonder about the intentions of Indian establishment regarding Pakistan which have never been remained sincere...But still if this is the case then Indian home minister must keep this in mind that Pakistan is a peaceful country and it at a number of platforms offered peaceful proposals to India but the later always found to be at the rejecting position. Now if this is the case then only exchange of statements would not fulfill the required purpose rather practical approach is needed on both ends in order to achieve the objective.

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Kam | 9 years ago | Reply @ B Sivara...... Peace cannot be achieved on India's terms. Give and take is only solution and India always retreats into its superficial nationalistic shell when it comes to compromise. If you combine muslim population of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh then Muslims are almost equal in numbers to Hindus equality is reality not a notion.

Shahid | 9 years ago | Reply Such statement given by any Indian Minister is not for the first time, every now and then some fool gets up and say something which is totally opposite to reality. India is not a trustable country, it plays dual policies like on the one side it shows that it want peace but on the other side it will stab you in the back. This is what India will do with the U.S., Russia, Canada, Brazil, France, Israel, China and Australia.

B Sivaramakrishna | 9 years ago | Reply My Home Minister Rajnath Singh is 800% correct and Pakistan must indeed change its approach. Specious Islamic Supremacist notion that 1 Pakistani Muslim equals 10 Hindu Indians which results in Pakistan then claiming to be equal to India must be dropped. Specious Islamic Supremacist notion that 1 US Dollar in Pakistani Muslim hands equals 10 US Dollars in Hindu Indian hands which results in Pakistan then claiming to be equal to India must also be dropped. These specious Islamic Supremacist notions must rather be replaced by the notion that Pakistan is inferior to India in every way, then and only then can peace break out on the Indian Sub-Continent.

Wajahat Khan | 9 years ago | Reply India has never been sincere in engaging in meaningful peace process with Pakistan. Every Indian government due to international pressure found it easy to make false pledges that it was willing to engage in peace process to resolve all issues including Kashmir dispute with Islamabad. But, New Delhi earnestly endeavored to find excuses and pretexts to cancel peace talks, while shifting the blame to Pakistan

Mariam | 9 years ago | Reply This time a quite reverse but an interesting statement comes from Eastern neighborhood that “India wants cordial ties with Pakistan but Islamabad must 'change its approach.” This has been stated by Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh who remains very blunt in reflecting his anti-Pakistan approach. If India really wants to establish good notes with Pakistan then why it shuts off all channels of diplomacy by giving one lame excuse or the other. At present the underlying statement is only because to dissolve the anti-Pakistan approach which India blatantly showed to the whole globe.

Rabia | 9 years ago | Reply What a joke! In fact India must let go off its hegemonic designs and must develop cordial ties with its neighbours rather than having nuclear and defence deals to become superiros hysteria. Stop blaming Pakistan and labelling yourself as if you are saints.

Shakti | 9 years ago | Reply Better change your approach and vacate Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. You will have everlasting peace and a little less to worry about.

peace | 9 years ago | Reply Stop bullying Pakistan first. Period.

Jalal | 9 years ago | Reply @samir:

Look whose talking… the one who burnt people alive in samjhota express

To those who burnt alive people in Gojra.

Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply @Raj - USA: There is also a need to change approach of those who think Pakistan can again be broken like it was done in 1971, dont act innocents, your hands are smeared with blood of the innocent even of those killed in Mumbai Attacks.

AKA | 9 years ago | Reply WHY YOU INDIAN'S LIVE US ALONE WE DO NOT WANT ANY TIES WITH YOU.

Bharat | 9 years ago | Reply I take it, from the comments here, that a peaceful approach from Palistan may not be on the horizon this century

Woz Ahmed | 9 years ago | Reply We both need to build bridges. 25% if not more of both our nations go to bed hungry and malnourished. This manufactured hatred only serves the military machines on both sides as well as Western , Russian and Chinese armaments industries. We both have enough nukes to probably wipe out all humanity, let's move on now.

salman | 9 years ago | Reply RSS talking about cordial ties ? Big LOL How about BJP gives up their extremist ideology and stop blaming Pakistan over their short comings.

pk | 9 years ago | Reply @Azi: It is not Pakistan where you boost morale of your army so much that they virtually took over country. We Indians always keep our army in its shoe. One thing is very clear in our mind that they are there because of nation and not the opposite. They are just glorified security guards. You can pamper them, give them Shabasi, but kick them when they cross the limit.

Siraj Memon | 9 years ago | Reply Mantri ji is abiding by the saying "Baghal me churri, muh pe ram ram". "We eschew peace and good neighbourly relations. Kindly ignore what our proxies do in your Balochistan and Fata."

Hamzah | 9 years ago | Reply India can take its "cordial ties" up its tiny behind

Maxx. | 9 years ago | Reply ...but Islamabad must change its approach and accept India as a hegemonic power in the region, accept its superiority, just like all the neighboring countries did, I mean the government.

java | 9 years ago | Reply funniest anti india comment. specially the first three :) From last 8-9 months a new things trend has emerged where pakistan keeps on pointing at India for supporting for terrorist, but I dont believe there is a single country other than Pakistan, it self that would accept this claim , that include all the muslim countries that Pakistan has "honey mountain bond something something " if not please tell me so the country name :)

samir | 9 years ago | Reply Look whose talking... the one who burnt people alive in samjhota express

Raj - USA | 9 years ago | Reply Rather than asking Islamabad to change its approach, Rajnath Singh should have asked Rawalpindi to change its approach.

Azi | 9 years ago | Reply Don't pay them many attention, after countless attempts to revive their army's moral and still failing at it, this is just another poor attempt to keep the hatred bred into Indians since childhood alive. Ignoring these people would do us good.

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