NEW DELHI Dec 28 (TNS): Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agrawal has justified the treatment Pakistan meted out to Kulbhushan Jadhav and his family and said that if Jadhav was considered to be a terrorist by Pakistan, he would naturally be treated that way.
“A country’s policies should be left to the country. If they (Pakistan) consider Kulbhushan Jadhav to be a terrorist, they will treat him accordingly. Even we should treat terrorists strictly in our country. And I don’t understand why the media is focusing on Kulbhushan Jadhav. There are many Indians in Pakistani jails. I don’t understand why we don’t talk about all of them,” ANI quoted Agrawal as saying on Wednesday.
Agarwal also targeted the Indian media over raking up Kulbhushan’s issue, saying, “I don’t understand why the media is talking only about Kulbhushan Jadhav. There are hundreds of Indians languishing in jails in Pakistan. It is beyond my understanding why we don’t talk about all of them.”
“Any country is free to follow its own policy with regard to treatment of terrorists,” he said.
Mr Agarwal was seen by many to be condoning Pakistan’s poor treatment of Mr Jadhav’s wife and mother.
The comment drew instant condemnation from various parties. Union minister Hansraj Ahir said: “This is a very unfortunate statement. An Indian citizen speaks like this. He can protest against the government as he is in the Opposition but this is seen as a protest against the nation.”
The ruling BJP’s GVL Narasimha Rao also ripped into Mr Agarwal saying he had “betrayed national interest”, and used the controversy to target the Congress. Mr Rao said the lawmaker’s comments “are symptomatic of betrayal of national interest by the Congress-led UPA over Pakistan. They side with Pak, wine and dine with Pak leaders, abuse Indian army chief, question surgical strikes, call Kulbhushan Jadhav a terrorist. Alas!!”
