No expectation from the new Pakistani Prime Minister: Rajnath Singh

In his recent visit to Jammu, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has revealed that India had 'no hopes' of any progress with Pakistan, despite the changing political situation in the neighboring country which saw Imran Khan become the PM.

Imran, upon taking charge of his country, had called for better relations with India. But his words merely remained words, with Pakistani terrorists regularly attacking the Indian soldiers and calling for war in the border.

The situation seems very similar to how it was before Imran took oath. And Rajnath believes India knew that nothing would change. Speaking to media in Jammu, he said, "We never had any expectations from Pakistan. We never thoughts things would change with the change of prime minister in Pakistan."

He further added that he prays that things change for good in Pakistan, but he said that support of terrorism was in nature of Pakistan and it was difficult to change ones nature. Mentioning that India has taken the first step to improve relations, Rajnath stated that Pakistan was not responding the way as it should, and was not serious to mend the ties.

"They (Pakistan) will have to do it themselves (to work towards mending ties), we took all the initiatives, even the Prime Minister broke the protocol and went to Pakistan but things didn’t change there at all," Rajnath said.

When asked to comment on the recent boycott of Kashmir based political parties from the upcoming elections of the Urban local bodies, the Union Home Minister called forall the political parties to participate in the upcoming elections so as to give political process in the state a chance.

Kashmir based political parties, including National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that recently shared power with BJP in the state, had announced that they would not take part in the upcoming elections to the urban local bodies and the Panchayats.

While the National Conference said that it was boycotting elections because of the stand taken by the union government on Article 35 A, PDP said that situation in the valley was not conducive to hold elections.

Terror outfits and the Kashmir based separatists too had asked the people to boycott the upcoming polls, the notification of which have already been issued by the government. The state administration under Governor SP Malik has maintained that despite boycott by the two mainstream parties in the state, it would go ahead with the elections.