External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir was a dysfunctional provision and arbitraged by a narrow set of people for their personal gains.
"The international community understands by and large what the objectives are in modifying (provisions of) Article 370. They were impeding development. The lack of development was feeding a sense of separatism and that thing actually was being utilised by Pakistan to carry out cross-border terrorism," Jaishankar told reporters here at a press briefing to mark 100 days of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) under the second term of the Narendra Modi-led government.
Jaishankar stressed that the issue with Pakistan is terrorism and not Article 370.
"Article 370 is internal to India and there's no change to it. With Pakistan, terrorism is the issue. Name any country that openly conducts terrorism against its neighbour as part of its so-called foreign policy. Until the terrorism issue is resolved relations cannot be normal. The world community has to recognise that," he said.
Pakistan has been making highly provocative anti-India rhetoric ever since New Delhi stripped the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and divided the erstwhile state into two separate Union Territories (UTs).
Islamabad has downgraded its bilateral ties and has been relentlessly making futile attempts to rake up the issue at international forums. India maintains that its move on Kashmir is its "internal matter" - a stance that has been supported by many countries - and has asked Pakistan to review these decisions so that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved.
( With inputs from ANI )