New Delhi: Joining issue with Pervez
Musharraf who has blamed a top External Ministry official for
failure of the Indo-Pak talks in Agra, BJP leader Sushma
Swaraj Wednesday said the former Pakistan president was
responsible for the collapse of the summit.
In a twitter message, she said the Agra summit
collapsed as Indian political leadership did not accept
Musharraf`s effort to bring Kashmir as `core issue` and no
mention of `cross-border terrorism` in the agreed statement.
"Musharraf is wrong to blame Vivek Katju (who is now
Secretary, West) for failure of Agra talks. Katju was then Jt.
Secy in MEA," said the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.
"The truth is that Musharraf wanted Kashmir as `core
issue` and no mention of `cross-border terrorism` in the
agreed statement. This was not acceptable to the political
leadership then. This is not acceptable even today," Swaraj
said.
While referring to the summit meeting, Musharraf, in
an interview to an Indian TV channel, had said that things
were progressing fine during his talks with the then prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee till Katju intervened.
"There was someone from the Foreign Ministry sitting
there named Katju. He may still be there, he created a lot of
hurdles," he had said.
Katju, who is now Secretary (West), yesterday
dismissed Musharraf`s claim that he created a "lot of hurdles"
during the Agra peace talks.
Katju, a 1974 batch IFS officer, was then joint
secretary in-charge of Pakistani division in the External
Affairs Ministry.
Vajpayee and Musharraf met in Agra on July 15 and 16,
2001 to resolve outstanding issues between India and Pakistan.
But the summit collapsed as the two sides couldn`t
arrive at any agreement, despite five one-to-one rounds
between the two leaders and hours of discussion between the
two delegations.
PTI
