New Delhi: BJP plans to attack the government
in Parliament on its initiative on talks with Pakistan and
seek an undertaking from the Prime Minister that no Indian
territory would be compromised with or its stand on Kashmir
diluted.
Expressing apprehensions that the offer of talks with
Pakistan has been made under international pressure, BJP today
said it would also like to know the reason behind the sudden
need for starting the process when Pakistan has not given any
assurance on checking terrorism.
"We are going to seek a clear undertaking from Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh that no Indian territory would be
compromised or our stand on Kashmir diluted in whatever
adventures/misadventures he is undertaking," Leader of
Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said.
He asserted that at present there are already eight
Indo-Pak working groups to deal with various contentious
issues. The Foreign Secretaries are not a part of any of these
groups and involving them now ipso facto means this is a
composite dialogue.
Jaitley said in this dialogue process the issue of
terrorism cannot be prioritised and India will have to go by
Pakistan`s understanding of the Sharm-el-Sheikh document which
delinks terrorism from the composite dialogue.
After the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, India had announced
that no dialogue with Pakistan would take place till Pakistan
stopped encouraging terrorism against India from its soil.
Jaitley maintained that India had initiated this dialogue
process with Pakistan under international pressure and rued
that Pakistan has effectively proved that they can use terror
as an instrument of foreign policy.
He also questioned the timing of this announcement, saying
it had come on a day when Pakistan paraded its terrorists.
Terror outfits, including Jamaat-ud-Dawa, held a meeting in
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir yesterday and announced that they
would continue the "Jehad" against India.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar termed the
decision "an abject surrender" under international pressure.
"This unilateral decision is abject surrender under
pressure and a complete U-turn of the government`s earlier
position. Foreign secretaries usually are engaged in composite
dialogue and they don?t discuss terrorism," he said.
He maintained that this initiative was uncalled for and
taken without getting a nod from the Cabinet Committee on
security.
"This will also undermine Home Minister P Chidambaram`s
efforts to discuss terrorism with his Pakistani counterpart.
This will prove yet another foreign policy blunder after
Sharm-el-Sheikh," Javadekar said.
He quoted Army chief Deepak Kapoor as saying that bids --
some of which succeeded -- have been made to infiltrate more
than 700 people. The terror camps across the border are still
active, he maintained.
PTI
