Cuttack, May 6: Emphasising that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has always been a part of India, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, on Monday, said that the “very sorry state of affairs” has continued because the earlier governments did not pursue Pakistan’s vacation from the region after Independence.
“PoK has never been out of this country. It has always been a part of this country. There is a resolution of the Indian Parliament that PoK is very much a part of India. Now, how did other people get control? Ab ho jaata hai (it happens) when you have someone who is not a responsible custodian of a house, an outsider will come and steal something,” Jaishankar said during an interactive session in Odisha’s Cuttack.
It is not for the first time that the EAM has blamed the previous Congress governments for several problems that had emerged on the foreign policy front, post Independence.
“Today, there is a lot of interest in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), but we should not forget how the problem originated. The doors of international pressure opened in 1947 and continued all the way till Article 370 was repealed (in 2019). We have corrected an enormous mistake that we had made in 1947,” said Jaishankar.