Jaishankar Questions Bids To 'hyphenate' India With Pakistan

Questioning bids to “hyphenate” India with Pakistan following the nullification of Article 370, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said it is being done by those who are obsessed with the post-August 5 developments in Jammu and Kashmir.

“You are really being very semantic about it. How do you hyphenate a country, which is one-eighth of your economic size…, which is ‘reputationally’ your exact opposite?” Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters, virtually taking exceptions to India and Pakistan being talked of in the same breath.

The external affairs minister was responding to a query about India and Pakistan being “hyphenated” once again following the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status after the nullification of Article 370 of the Constitution.