NEW DELHI: Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday expressed concern over arms sale to Pakistan, ahead of his meeting with visiting US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter. The two later renewed a 10-year defence cooperation agreement that was first signed in 2005.

“I will not comment on specifics but any arms sale to Pakistan is a concern to India,” Mr Parrikar told reporters in New Delhi.

He was replying to a question about continued American sale of arms to Pakistan.

He was also asked if this issue would be raised during his meeting with Mr. Carter later in the evening.

The United States has given military hardware, including F-16 fighter planes, to Pakistan amounting to a whopping $ 5.4 billion since the 9/11 terror attacks, Press Trust of India said, quoting the latest Congressional report.

It said sale of F-16 combat aircraft and related equipment account for nearly half of this.

The military hardware given to Pakistan in the 10-year framework has been argued as supplies needed by Islamabad for capacity building to fight terrorists in its border areas.

But most of the arms and equipment supplied to Pakistan have been those, which could be used for conventional war with India, local reports said.

Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday Mr Parrikar, took a dig at Pakistan when a journalist told him that his recent comment on using terrorists to neutralise terrorists has spooked the neighbour.

“I will not go into what Pakistan feels about that, but unko mirchi, woh bhi Andhra ki lagi hai”.

STATUE FROM CHINA: Addressing a seminar on ‘Design and Make In India-Electronics, Mr Parrikar lamented that idols of lord Ganesha were coming into India from China.

He said he often gets statues of Hindu gods, especially Ganesha, as gifts when he attends programmes.

“I found that nowadays the eyes are becoming smaller and smaller. One day I turned it back and found Made in China,” he said, leaving the audience at Vivekananda International Foundation in splits.

He said Indians have imagined the facial features of Saraswati and Ganesha among others based on the paintings of Raja Ravi Verma.

“Don’t be surprised if it slowly changes. So we have to start ‘Make in India’ right from Diwali gifts to our own gods. I think it is quite serious,” he said, talking about the Chinese edge over India in manufacturing.

Turning anecdotal while talking about the population problem, the minister said when he was a child his father used to jokingly say that a single atom bomb can solve it.

“The population then was only 35 crore and he considered it to be a problem,” he said apparently in a lighter vein. India, he said, has a large number of youngsters because the country’s population is huge.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2015

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