New Delhi: Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi has slammed Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the country he represents is incubating terrorism.

"If a Foreign Minister of a country is making such statement, it doesn't hold him well. This is the country which was included in the grey list of FATF several times. The country he represents is incubating terrorism," she said

The minister said as far as the leadership of PM Modi is concerned, the world has recognized that leadership. The minister said that PM Modi has helped not only India but also other countries including Pakistan during Covid.

"The ancestors of Bhutto were responsible for the terrorism in Kashmir, Punjab, Afghanistan, Balochistan and Karachi. So one knows who the butchers are. India is a law-abiding citizen where the constitution works. PM Modi has been given a clean chit by the Supreme Court," she said.

"I think Bhutto should start recounting the acts of terrorism in his own country where the agencies and his own ancestry have created terrorism and the network of terrorists across the country and are responsible for the terrorism which they are facing," the minister added

Earlier on Thursday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar ripped into Pakistan over its role in sponsoring and spreading terrorism and advised Islamabad to clean up its act and try to be a good neighbour.

In reply to a question from a Pakistani journalist, who accused India of spreading terror, Jaishankar replied," You are asking the wrong minister when you say how long will we do this. It is the ministers of Pakistan who will tell how long Pakistan intends to practice terrorism."

Responding to the EAM's remark, Bilawal unleashed a personal attack on PM Modi and also hit out at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Referring to Bilawal Bhutto, Lekhi said such comments reflect the "bankruptcy of emotions and intellect" of leaders who run that country.

"The remarks of Foreign Minister of Pakistan are indicative of not just a bankrupt nation i.e Pakistan but the bankruptcy of emotions and bankruptcy of intellect by the leaders who run that country," she said.

"We know that the kind of work which is going on in the country of Pakistan as well as the kind of representation which Pakistan has made. It is not just a desperate act of a desperate nation or a foreign minister who is likely to be representing a failed state in a very short time," Meenakshi Lekhi said.

"I think one must understand that this is the desperation of Mr Bhutto which is making him speak the language he is speaking," she added.

Earlier, responding to a query, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "Pakistan foreign minister's frustration would be better directed towards the masterminds of terrorist enterprises in his own country, who have made terrorism a part of their state policy. Pakistan needs to change its own mindset or remain a pariah."

"Pakistan FM's uncivilised outburst seems to be a result of Pakistan's increasing inability to use terrorists and their proxies," Bagchi said.

"Cities like New York, Mumbai, Pulwama, Pathankot and London are among the many that bear the scars of Pakistan-sponsored, supported and instigated terrorism. This violence has emanated from their Special Terrorist Zones and exported to all parts of the world. 'Make in Pakistan' terrorism has to stop," he said, adding that Pakistan is a country that glorifies Osama bin Laden as a martyr and shelters terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim.