Salman Khurshid defends 'Pak lecture', says it was a 'reasonable statement'

Defending his lecture in Islamabad, where he attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ignoring the peace overtures by Pakistan, bringing him under the line of fire by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former external affairs minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Friday said that those attacking him had not heard his 'entire' lecture where he had also demanded that Pakistan 'give back Kashmir'.

"The first thing one should do before commenting on somebody's statement or a lecture is read it and I don't think they have done that. But, if they are attacking even after reading it, then it's worse. To read and not understand is even worse. I have said this before- that in my lecture I have demanded that Pakistan must give up Kashmir," Khurshid told the media.

He asserted that in his invitation lecture at the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad, he said that India had time and again provided proof to Pakistan about terrorist activities brewing from and on their soil, but they chose to ignore it.

"I had also said that India has given proof to Pakistan about their complicity in terrorism, which must come to an end so that the future is without terrorism. I said that I'm disappointed that the attempts by their Prime Minister have not been supported by our government," Khurshid said.

Batting for Nawaz Sharif, the senior Congress leader said that he is the person who wants peace with India and he is being weakened against those who don't want peace.

"So, if you can't make this reasonable statement, then you can't say anything at all," he added.

During his controversial lecture in Islamabad, Khurshid had said that Prime Minister Modi was not used to talking to people who disagreed with him.

Khurshid also criticised the ruling BJP for adopting a tough stand towards Pakistan and said "when the Congress was in power, BJP had been pressuring it to normalise ties with Pakistan".

In retaliation, the BJP branded Khurshid as propagandist for the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria) and slammed Congress for not condemning his statement, and have also demanded an apology from party president Sonia Gandhi.