Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Friday said he found “nothing objectionable” in Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s remark that the state had acceded to and not merged with the Union of India.

“I don’t think Abdullah has said anything objectionable. It is a fact that Jammu and Kashmir has acceded to India just like Mysore did,” Krishna said here when asked for his reaction to Omar Abdullah’s the recent remark.

Krishna stressed that like in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the Maharaja of Mysore also had signed an accession treaty. “And I am a citizen of Mysore,” he said.

Abdullah had said in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly that the state had only acceded to and not merged with the Union of India and could not be compared to Junagarh and Hyderabad, triggering outrage from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Krishna, however, asserted that Jammu and Kashmir is a “legitimate part” of India and reiterated India’s objections to the Chinese practice of issuing stapled visas to Indian residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chinese practice is seen here as a ploy to question India’s sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir.

Krishna said New Delhi has made it clear to Beijing that it was not acceptable and that there was need to “be sensitive to each other’s core concerns” to build relations.

“We have conveyed to them (China) that we do not accept the stapled visas and we are not going to accept these,” he said.

“China should keep our sensitivities in mind. That’s how relationships are built, sustained and nurtured,” the minister said.