S Jaishankar Takes A Dig At Pakistan, Says India Has Right To Defend Itself From Bad Neighbours

New Delhi: Taking a sharp dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that India has a “bad neighbour” that persistently backs terrorism and that New Delhi has every right to defend itself against such threats.

Jaishankar, who was speaking at an event at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, said India has the right to protect its security and national interests. He added that India would not accept external prescriptions on how it should respond to terrorism.

He said, “But when it comes to bad neighbours who persist with terrorism, India has every right to defend its people and will do whatever is necessary. You cannot request us to share our water with you and also spread terrorism in our country.”

He further stressed that India's response to terrorism would be decided solely by New Delhi. “How we exercise that right is up to us. Nobody can tell us what we should or should not do. We will do whatever we have to do to defend ourselves,” he said.

Further referring to India’s western neighbour, Jaishankar said, “If a country decides that it will deliberately, persistently and unrepentantly continue with terrorism, we have a right to defend our people against terrorism. We will exercise that right.” 

He also talked about issue of cross-border terrorism, and said, “Many years ago, we agreed to a water-sharing arrangement, but if you have decades of terrorism, there is no good neighbourliness. If there is no good neighbourliness, you don’t get the benefits of that good neighbourliness,” he said. “You can’t say, ‘Please share water with me, but I will continue terrorism with you.’ That’s not reconcilable.”