New Delhi [India], August 11 (ANI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday responded to Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir’s nuclear threats, saying India won’t surrender to nuclear blackmail.
Tharoor’s remarks come after Munir’s comments in Florida, where he reportedly said Pakistan could use nuclear weapons to take down India and “half the world” in the event of an existential threat.
Tharoor emphasised that India knows how to handle threats both in the air and on the ground, expressing confidence in the country’s ability to respond to such situations. He noted that the Ministry of External Affairs has given a fitting reply to Munir’s comments, dismissing the nuclear blackmail.
While speaking to the media, Tharoor said, “The Ministry has given a fitting reply… We are not going to surrender to nuclear blackmail. This gentleman has a habit of saying things to the Pakistan diaspora that are apparently intended to boost his position. India knows how to handle these things in the air and on the ground. I am not too worried”.
Earlier, at the end of the Parliamentary Committee Meeting on External Affairs, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told the media that the committee echoes the statement by the Ministry of External Affairs. He affirmed that nuclear blackmail would not work with India.
Tharoor told the media, “Munir’s statement on American soil has been brought up. Concern was expressed about the misuse of a friendly country, the country’s soil, to say something about us in this manner. But at the same time, the fact that nuclear saber-rattling is something the Pakistanis like to do has been dismissed by the MEA in a statement… So we will echo that statement. The committee shares the same view that we are not going to allow this kind of nonsense to influence our thinking. Nuclear blackmail will not work with India, and no party, no representative of any party, disagrees with that principle.”
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday issued a strong statement in response to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff during his visit to the United States.
“Our attention has been drawn to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff while on a visit to the United States. Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade,” the MEA official spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added, “The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups.
“The MEA spokesperson further expressed regret that these remarks were made from the soil of a friendly third country. “It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country,” the official said.
“India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail and will continue to take all necessary steps to safeguard its national security, the MEA spokesperson affirmed. The MEA statement further said.
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir has once again threatened India, warning that Islamabad would plunge the region into nuclear war and could take “almost half of the world” down if faced with an existential threat in a future conflict with New Delhi.
During his ongoing visit to the United States, General Munir also stated that Islamabad will defend its water rights “at all costs” if India proceeds with dam construction on the Indus River.
Munir also repeated his anti-India rhetoric by describing Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein,” asserting that it is not India’s internal matter but an unresolved international issue, Pakistan-based media outlet ARY News reported on Monday.
“We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it,” Munir told members of the Pakistani-American community in Tampa, Florida, according to a report published today in The Dawn.
At a black-tie dinner in Washington, DC, hosted by Adnan Asad, Pakistan’s honorary consul in Tampa, Munir said the Indus River “is not the Indians’ family property,” adding that Islamabad has “no shortage of resources to undo the Indian designs to stop the river,” the Dawn reported. (ANI)
