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Former Indian defense minister makes U-turn on remarks on Kashmir

Xinhua, April 15, 2017 Adjust font size:

Former Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday made a U-turn on his remarks on Indian-controled Kashmir and that he served under a lot of pressure under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, saying media reports incorrectly reported the same.

"Reports attributed to me by some news agency regarding my speech at Ambedkar Jayanti is factually incorrect," Parrikkar, now the chief minister of the western Indian state of Goa, tweeted.

Parrikar reportedly said Friday at the 126th birth anniversary celebrations of India's social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar in state capital Panaji, that the Kashmir conundrum is not an easy issue to resolve and advocated a long-term policy to tackle it.

"It is not easy to resolve the Kashmir issue. There is a need for a long term policy to resolve the Kashmir issue," he said.

Kashmir has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan and both the countries have fought at least three major wars over the disputed territory in the past 65 years, with both staking claim to the region.

Parrikar also said he was not used to Delhi and that there was a lot of pressure on him when he was serving as the defense minister in the national capital. "Delhi is not my place. It is not the place I am habituated to. There was a lot of pressure on me," he was quoted as saying by the media.

Parrikar served in the Modi government as defense minister from 2014 to 2017 before returning to his home state of Goa as the chief minister after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party formed a coalition government there. Endit