Even Indira couldn’t change Pakistan’s ‘bigoted mindset’: Jaishankar

Jaishankar criticizes Pakistan's "bigoted mindset" towards minorities, raises concerns about Bangladesh ahead of BIMSTEC Summit.

Even former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi couldn’t change Pakistan’s “bigoted mindset” in 1971, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday (March 28, 2025), responding to questions in Parliament about the condition of minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Mr. Jaishankar said that it was not possible to “change the mindset” of a neighbouring country, but that India has raised the issue at international forums, and in Bangladesh’s case, directly with the government in Dhaka. The responses come a few days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to travel to Bangkok to attend the seven-nation BIMSTEC Summit (April 3-4) along with Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, although the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been non-committal about whether the leaders will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines.

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During Question Hour in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Mr. Jaishankar received a number of questions about the treatment of the minority Hindu community in both Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, he restricted most of his responses to Pakistan’s failure to keep promises given in a number of India-Pakistan agreements on equal and fair treatment of religious minorities there, enumerating at least 10 cases of attacks just in February 2025 on Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Ahmadiyya sect members.

“We are making our position very well-known, we are taking it up at the international level but we as a government and a country cannot change the mindset of a neighbour who has a fanatical, bigoted mindset. Even Indira Gandhi could not do it,” Mr. Jaishankar told the House, referring to the 1971 India-Pakistan war and the creation of Bangladesh. “Despite it being taken up in international forums and bodies, the Government of Pakistan does not take action to protect its minorities and this is the position on which we have been very public and very clear,” he added.

Quoting from recent speeches made by India’s envoys to the United Nations and Human Rights Council, Mr. Jaishankar also called Pakistan a country with “human rights abuses, persecution of minorities and the systematic erosion of democratic values” and state policies to “brazenly harbour UN-sanctioned terrorists.”

In response to a specific question about Bangladesh, Mr. Jaishankar said that India follows the situation there “closely”, and had compiled 2,400 incidents of violence against minorities there in 2024, and 72 incidents thus far in 2025.