Bilawal Bhutto's remarks on Kashmir are immature, childish: BJP

New Delhi: BJP today described as “immature” and “childish” the statement by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari that the country would “take back all of Kashmir” and said the territory would always remain an integral part of India. “Kashmir is very much a part of India and will remain so. Any discussion on it is not acceptable to us. Kashmir resides in the hearts of Indians,” said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain. The party said that Pakistani leaders are known for making such provocative statements and India’s security forces are capable of protecting its territory and give a fitting reply to Pakistan, as it has in the past. [caption id=“attachment_1401971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bilawal Bhutto. AFP image[/caption] “The statement by Bilawal Bhutto is very immature and childish. Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so. Any attempt to eye Kashmir will be dealt with sternly as India is capable of protecting its territory,” said BJP Secretary Shrikant Sharma. Party Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Pakistani politicians have always tried to make Kashmir a “parachute” of their politics. Another BJP leader, Subramanian Swamy, said Bilawal was a very “inexperienced” politician and his comments were “very immature”. “It is an immature statement. He is totally inexperienced in politics and because of his family, he has been made the Patron-in-Chief of PPP. He should learn lessons,” he said. Bilawal, considered the ‘Gen-Next’ politician of Pakistan, had yesterday told his party’s workers in Multan in Pakistan’s Punjab that PPP would get back Kashmir from India. “I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistan,” the scion of the highly influential Bhutto family had said. Former Pakistan prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Asharaf were present at his side when Bilawal made those comments. Bilawal’s mother, the slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, was twice elected prime minister while his maternal grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who founded PPP in 1967, had also served as prime minister in the 1970s. Bilawal’s father Asif Ali Zardari was Pakistan president from 2008 to 2013. Shrikant Sharma said that Pakistani politicians often raise the Kashmir issue to save their own identity in Pakistan. The neighbouring country also uses the Kashmir issue to divert the attention of its public from its internal problems. India has given a fitting reply to Pakistan whenever it has raised provocative issues and the neighbouring country should not forget the defeats it has suffered at the hands of India, Sharma added. PTI