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India slams Pak defence minister (Img: IANS)
New Delhi: India on Saturday strongly responded to Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif after he mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over receiving Seychelles' newly instituted 'Guardian of the Blue Horizon' Presidential Distinction, with government sources calling the Pakistani minister "mentally unstable" and accusing him of making uninformed remarks.
The sharp response came after Asif questioned the credibility of the honour conferred on PM Modi during his recent visit to the island nation.
Reacting to Asif's comments, government sources dismissed his criticism, saying he lacked understanding of the issue and was making "silly comments" out of envy.
"That Khawaja Asif is mentally unstable is a known fact. That he could be entrusted with his current responsibility says much about today's Pakistan. Clearly, he has no day job and passes time by making silly comments on matters of which he has little knowledge," the sources said.
They further added that "envy is always a bad motivation, particularly so from someone steeped in hate speech."
The controversy began after Asif described PM Modi's Seychelles honour as an "engineered" recognition.
Prime Minister Modi became the first recipient of the 'Guardian of the Blue Horizon' Presidential Distinction, an award instituted by the Seychelles government to recognise contributions towards environmental conservation and support for Small Island Developing States.
The award had also drawn criticism from opposition parties in India, which pointed to alleged spelling and typographical errors in the official citation and questioned the presentation of the document.
However, the Seychelles government clarified that the honour was genuine. It explained that the country had recently overhauled its national honours system after repealing its earlier framework and that the Cabinet formally approved the new award on June 24, just days before PM Modi's visit.
The exchange has added another chapter to the ongoing war of words between India and Pakistan, with New Delhi firmly rejecting Islamabad's criticism of the Prime Minister's international recognition.
