BENGALURU: Objecting to calling Pakistan an enemy nation of India, Congress MLC BK Hariprasad said that it is the Union government that should decide if a nation is India’s enemy or not. He, however, said that India’s enemy was not Pakistan, but China.
On Wednesday, BJP MLC KS Naveen said that Hariprasad had stated that Pakistan is our neighbouring country and not an enemy nation.
Replying to Naveen, Hariprasad said, “We cannot decide if Pakistan is an enemy nation or not. It has to be decided as per the ‘foreign policy.’ How can you call a nation an enemy while having its embassy in India?”
He said that the External Affairs Minister has admitted that over 4,000 square kilometres of Indian land is occupied by China, and yet it has not been declared an enemy nation.
“Let Pakistan be declared an enemy nation and permit travelling anywhere using Indian passport, but not to Pakistan”, the senior Congress leader further added..
Earlier in the day, Chairman of the Council Basavaraj Horatti permitted members to raise issues under Rule 330 (A) in lieu of zero hour, after which the ruling party members, including Leader of the House NS Boseraju, MLC Saleem Ahmed, demanded that BJP MLC and former minister CT Ravi apologise for his ‘Pakistani tongue’ remarks and let the House conduct business.
Leader of Opposition in the Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, in reply, said that it was a closed chapter as Ravi did not use any unparliamentary words.
Intervening, Law Minister HK Patil said that the Chair’s ‘advice’ and ‘request’ was a ‘command’ and pointed out that Horatti had sought Ravi’s apology five times.