Chowkidar Gave Befitting Reply to Pakistan, They Did Not do us a Favour by Returning IAF Pilot: Nirmala Sitharaman

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday sneered at those who hailed Pakistan Imran Khan's decision to return IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

New Delhi: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday aimed her ire at those from within the country who hailed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to return Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

The Raksha Mantri maintained that the Indian Air Force pilot’s release from Pakistan captivity was as per law and not a favour.

“Some within India, some journalists and thinkers, are terming him (Imran Khan) a statesman for sending back our pilot, but it is only as per law and it has not done India a favour; they are also questioning what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done,” she said while addressing a gathering on ‘Ensuring India’s National Security’ organised by the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation.

India had sent back 90,000 Pakistani soldiers unconditionally after the 1971 war, in which Pakistan was defeated, she added.

Pulling up the nature of broadcast journalism, the defence minister spoke of how Pakistan has shown the statements of such people and opposition leaders on their television channels, increasing TRP.

Steering conversation to the Balakot air strike, the defence minister said that India has given a message to the world after the Balakot air strike by not bowing to Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail.

She also drew a comparison between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former PM Dr Manmohan Singh on India’s new muscular policy against its belligerent neighbours. Modi did what former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not do in the Mumbai attacks 2008 aftermath, possibly because of Islamabad’s continued propaganda that ‘it is a nuclear power like India, and we should not forget that before doing anything against them,” she opined.

“Chowkidar gave Pakistan the right answer,” Sitharaman added.

With PTI inputs