While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leaving no stone unturned for winning the Lok Sabha elections and is confident of winning the polls. Even Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan wants the same. The Pakistani Prime Minister has said there may be a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the upcoming general election.
In an interview to a small group of foreign journalists, Imran Khan said that he believes there may be a better chance of peace talks with India and settle the Kashmir issue if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP wins the Lok Sabha elections. Khan also said that if the next Indian government was led by the Congress party, it might be too scared to talk to Pakistan, fearing a backlash from the right. “Perhaps if the BJP – a right-wing party – wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached,” Khan told foreign journalists.
According to a report by Reuters, Khan said this was despite the massive alienation that Muslims in Kashmir and Muslims, in general, were facing in Modi’s India. He also added that Indian Muslims he knew who many years ago had been happy about their situation in India were now very worried by extreme Hindu nationalism.
Imran Khan further compared Narendra Modi with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said both leaders were electioneering based on “fear and nationalist feeling”. The BJP in its manifesto proposed to strip down the decades-old special rights from people of Jammu and Kashmir, which prevented from buying property in the state, to which Imran Khan said, that it was a major concern, though it could also be electioneering.
The Pakistani Prime Minister also added that Islamabad was determined to dismantle all Pakistan-based terrorists in the country and that the government had full support from Pakistan’s powerful army for the programme. Khan has said that Pakistan was taking action against all militants groups including the JeM. Khan said that groups like the JeM were being disarmed under a serious drive to eliminate militancy from Pakistan.
The Lok Sabha Elections for 543 seats is to be held in seven phases and will begin from 11 April and end on 19 May. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
(With inputs from Reuters)
