India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticised Indian media outlets that interviewed Pakistan's foreign minister during his participation in the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The SCO was held on May 4-5 in the Indian state of Goa. It highlighted a wide range of pivotal issues from the expansion of the SCO membership to the regulation of regional conflicts. Zardari was the first Pakistani senior official to visit India in 12 years.
Amit Malviya, chief of the BJP's information and technology cell, remarked that the Pakistani foreign minister "wanted to use the opportunity to speak directly to the Indian people through our press and seemed to have asked specifically to meet two or three journalists considered by Pakistan to be 'serviceable'."
'No Justification for Terrorism'
During the council meeting, Jaishankar underlined that there is "no justification for terrorism and it must be stopped in all forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism". He also stated that countering terrorism was one of the original mandates of the SCO.
New Delhi has consistently accused Islamabad of supporting "cross-border terrorism" against Indian interests. According to India's policy, "talks and terror can’t go together". For its part, Islamabad downgraded its diplomatic and commercial ties with New Delhi after the Indian parliament rescinded the semi-autonomous status of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
Following the SCO CFM meeting, the mutual condemnatory discourse between Jaishankar and Zardari escalated. The latter accused New Delhi of “weaponizing terrorism for diplomatic point scoring”.
Jaishankar rejected the charge, stating that New Delhi was a “victim of terrorism” and “politically, diplomatically exposed Pakistan for the world”. He also suggested that Zardari’s comment indicated that Islamabad perceived terrorism as a “legitimate activity."
Additionaly, the SCO CFM meeting took place against the background of a major anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the loss of five Indian soldiers.