Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha today witnessed an interesting passage of arms when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervened repeatedly and rejected BJP leader L K Advani`s charge that US pressure was behind India`s decision to talk to Pakistan.
In a sharp verbal duel during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President`s Address, Singh asserted that there is no change in the US policy on Indo-Pak relations after President Barack Obama came to power.
He intervened on more than two occasions during the 75-minute speech by Advani, seeking to set the record straight on the Indo-Pak talks besides other issues like `one-rank-one-pension` for armed forces.
The Prime Minister attacked Advani for trying to create a "rift between service personnel" and the government. The BJP leader had alleged that a promise made in the 2009 budget - on the one-rank-one-pension scheme for ex-servicemen - had not been implemented completely.
"Whatever I have promised, my government has done. Whatever the finance minister stated in the budget, it has been implemented," Manmohan Singh said.
"You are using this debate to sow seeds... What you are attributing to President Obama is certainly not true. In my discussions with President Obama, he has unambiguously said that there is no change in the US policy towards India and Pakistan (relations)," the Prime Minister asserted.
He was replying to Advani who suggested that the US was behind the recent Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level as Obama had publicly said during his Presidential campaign that he would try to resolve Kashmir issue.
This, the BJP leader, contended marked a change in the US position as the previous US Administrations had maintained that they would not mediate in Indo-Pak relations unless both the countries want it.
Advani also referred to a Newsweek report, which quoted Indian and US sources as saying that India and Pakistan have restarted "secret back-channel talks" over Kashmir, and asked the prime minister for an explanation.
Manmohan Singh said: "How many times did Jaswantji (who was external affairs minister in the NDA government) talk with US government representatives? How many times you informed the house? Why are you expecting me to answer hypothetical questions?"
Besides the foreign policy issues, Advani also expressed
concern over the price rise and attacked the UPA for its
"inability" to deal with increasing inflation.
"The biggest worry is price rise affecting the aam aadmi",
he said, asking the government to take remedial measures.
"Besides mismanagement, scam in import-export was also
responsible for rising prices as well as corruption," he said.
The BJP leader said the tradition of Motion of Thanks to
the President`s address was adopted from UK and if need be
traditions could be changed.
Referring to various Government schemes, he said most of
them and several projects have been named after three
prominent personalities.
When Congress members protested, Advani said he had
nothing against Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv
Gandhi.
-Agencies’ inputs
