MJ Akbar on 'talks with Pakistan': 'Govt with double face, forked tongue, which one do we talk to?'

Former Union Minister MJ Akbar, who is part of global outreach programme delegation travelling across the world to convey India's firm stance against terrorism, criticised Pakistan, calling it a nation with a “double face” and a “forked tongue”.

Addressing the Indian diaspora in Copenhagen in Denmark, MJ Akbar said, “Even well-meaning friends will ask you, why don't you talk to Pakistan? Tell them Pakistan has a government with a double face, which face do we talk to? Pakistan has a government with a forked tongue; whose tongue do we address? Pakistan has talks with a poisoned tongue that gets hurt when a tongue is poisoned.”

“The talks are nothing but a bluff. We now have a leader who has actually called the bluff, Narendra Modi... Nobody has made as much effort to bring a nation with a genetic disorder to its senses,” the former Union minister said.

The Indian delegation in Copenhagen, led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, includes BJP MP Daggubati Purandeswari, Samik Bhattacharya, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress MPs Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, former Union Minister MJ Akbar, and Ambassador Pankaj Saran.

According to reports, some Pakistani nationals also raised slogans outside the venue while the delegation was addressing the Indian diaspora.

Firing shots at them, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that they have come here in “desperation”, advising people to “ignore them with impunity”.

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“I was very surprised to see Pakistanis here raising slogans...our programme is going very well...we are getting wide coverage...their handlers in Pakistan must have told them to do something. They have come here in desperation. Pakistan is a desperate country that lives in desperation. Ignore them with impunity,” Prasad said.

He further highlighted the human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Balochistan, highlighting the plight of civilians in those regions.

“What kind of ill treatment in PoK people are suffering, do you know? They are crying to shift to India...in Balochistan, women are given the worst barbaric treatment possible...Pakistan is in great commotion today...We fought four conventional wars...none of this India started, we only responded and Pakistan lost all of them... 'Jinnah ne banaya Pakistan woh ban gayi General ki Dukan' [Jinnah created Pakistan, it became an Army General's shop],” Ravi Shankar Prasad said.