Under fire from the Opposition for his lecture in Pakistan, former Union Minister and senior Congress Salman Khurshid on Friday said that that those criticising him had not heard his ‘entire’ lecture.
Speaking to the media, Khurshid, “The first thing one should do before commenting on somebody’s statement or a lecture is read it and I don’t think they have done that. But if they are attacking even after reading it, then it’s worse. To read and not understand is even worse. I have said this before that in my lecture I have demanded that Pakistan must give up Kashmir.”
He stressed that in his invitation lecture at the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad, he said that India had time and again provided proof to Pakistan about terrorist activities brewing from and on their soil, but they chose to ignore it.
“I had also said that India has given proof to Pakistan about their complicity in terrorism, which must come to an end so that the future is without terrorism. I said that I’m disappointed that the attempts by their Prime Minister have not been supported by our government,” Khurshid said.
The Congress leader backed Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif by saying that he is the person who wants peace with India ad he is being weakened against those who don’t want peace.
“So, if you can’t make this reasonable statement, then you can’t say anything at all,” he added.
Khurshid in his controversial lecture in Islamabad had said that Prime Minister Modi was not used to talking to people who disagreed with him. He criticised the ruling BJP) for adopting a tough stand towards Pakistan and said “when congress was in power, BJP had been pressuring it to normalise ties with Pakistan”.
Responding to the lecture, the BJP branded Khurshid as propagandist for the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria) and slammed Congress for not condemning his statement and have also demanded an apology from party president Sonia Gandhi.