Bipin Rawat: Pakistan needs to be ‘secular’ for bilateral talks with India, says Army chief | India News

NEW DELHI: Amid Pakistan’s fresh efforts to resume bilateral talks with India, Army chief Bipin Rawat on Friday said that if Pakistan wants to “stay together with India, then it has to develop itself as a secular state.”

He added that if Pakistan is willing to become secular like India, then it seems to have an opportunity, ANI reported.

Commenting on the recent remarks of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Army chief said, “They’re (Pak) saying you take one step, we’ll take two. There is a contradiction in what they’re saying. One step from there should come in a positive manner, we’ll see if the step has any effect on the ground. Till then our nation has a clear policy – terror and talks can’t go together.”

Rawat was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Passing Out Parade of the 135th course at the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune.

Asked about a recent statement of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan about his country willing to take two steps for every step forward by India, he said the neighbouring nation should first take steps to curtail terror activities on its soil.

The Pakistan PM had said he was ready to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while conceding that it was not in the interest of his country to allow terror activities from its territory.

Khan said that people in Pakistan want peace with India and he will be happy to meet Modi and talk to him on any issue. He, however, said the gesture for peace cannot be one-sided.

The Pakistan PM made these comments a day after he laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor that will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur – the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev – with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Kartarpur.

Speaking about assigning combat roles to women in the armed forces, Rawat said, “We are not yet ready for that as facilities have to be created within the armed forces and women also need to be prepared for that kind of hardships. It is not easy. Let us not compare ourselves with western nations. The western nations are more open,” he said.

Rawat added that there were several other fields where the Army was thinking of inducting women.

(With agency inputs)

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