New Delhi: BJP on Thursday said the government was
"rewarding" former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon by
appointing him as National Security Adviser for the country's
"worst diplomatic blunder".
"You are rewarding the worst diplomatic blunder...," BJP
spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, referring to the Indo-Pak
joint statement issued in Sharm-el Sheikh, which the party
criticised and targeted Menon for his role in drafting it.
The joint statement was issued following talks between
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Yusuf Raza
Gilani in July last year.
Javadekar was reacting to the appointment of Menon as the
next NSA in place of M K Narayanan who has been appointed as
West Bengal Governor.
The government had come under severe attack from the
main opposition for allowing inclusion of reference to
Balochistan and delinking talks from action against terrorism
by Pakistan and Menon was one of its key targets.
The party had also termed the joint statement as a
"complete turnaround" in the government's position on
terrorism emanating from Pakistan in less than a month from
Prime Minister Singh's meeting with Pakistan President Asif
Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg on June 16 last year and his
meeting with Gilani on July 16, 2009.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 22, 2010, 00:15