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Should not link humanitarian case with politics: Sushma Swaraj

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ANI New Delhi

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that politics and humanitarian cases were different and must not be linked with each other.

Addressing the media after Geeta's return to India, Swaraj said both nations have proved their maturity and added that the people have appreciated this step.

"We should not link a humanitarian case (Geeta's case) with politics. In politics and in relations between two nations, people-to-people contacts have a huge role to play," she said.

Listing a similar case as that of Geeta's, Swaraj said, "There is a boy from Aligarh, Salman. According to the kid, his mother had left him with his grandmother in Pakistan. But now that his grandparents are no longer alive, he wishes to return to India."

 

"So, after examining all the facts we will bring him to India," she added.

It may be recalled here that the relations between New Delhi and Islamabad have not been cordial of late.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had on his visit to the US earlier this month accused India of setting off a new arms race in South Asia and not responding to his peace overtures, while urging Washington to reconsider some of its existing assumptions and analyses about the region.

The NSA-level talks scheduled for August 23 in New Delhi were called off at the last minute after India made it clear that Pakistan's insistence on holding discussions on Kashmir and a meeting with separatists will not be acceptable to it.

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First Published: Oct 26 2015 | 4:54 PM IST

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