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India surrendered ground at Egypt: G Parthasarthy

India’s former High Commissioner to Pakistan shares his discontentment on the latest round of Indo-Pak engagement.

As PM Manmohan Singh agrees to look at the possibility of resumption of the peace process with Pakistan, many in India look at the move as a climbdown. Till July 17, India’s public stand vis-à-vis Pakistan was firm- no talks till terror is tackled and perpetrators of 26/11 are brought to justice. That changed in Sharm el Sheikh.
G Parthasarthy, India’s former High Commissioner to Pakistan and an authority on foreign affairs, shares his discontentment with Shashank Chouhan of Zeenews.com on the latest round of Indo-Pak engagement. Shashank: Your reaction to what happened in Egypt… Parthasarthy : It is surrendering of ground- nothing less than that. Shashank: Why do you think the government has changed its stand? Parthasarthy: I think this is a question that only the government can answer best. Though, a reasonable person would find no plausible cause for such a shift in stand. Shashank: Wasn’t this breaking of ice essential to end our internal problems? Parthasarthy: When you have problems it is important to keep in touch. In any case you always have to have talks with a neighbour. But what should a dialogue be based on? “Composite Dialogue” has nothing to do with problems. What has happened now is the revival of dialogue…but no guarantee yet to ensure that there won’t be further attacks on the Indian soil. Shashank: Doesn’t it look like a well thought out move by the government? Parthasarthy: Move? It is only betrayal and confusion. The government has shattered the hopes and expectations not just of the Mumbai victims’ families but of the whole nation. Shashank: What do you think are the basic faults of this latest development? Parthasarthy: The worst repercussion of the Egypt talks would be the diversion of attention from terrorism, which is the biggest challenge before India now. On July 12 we captured two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, who admitted they were sent on a mission to blow up the Baglihar dam. This revelation was both shocking and scary as this means emergence of a new form of terrorism. India had made more than one tactical mistake in the Egypt talks. Reference to Baluchistan was uncalled for. Pakistan is now using it to nail India and gain international sympathy and shift focus away from terrorism. Shashank: What do you think would happen if there is another major attack on India? Parthasarthy: With such a soft stand on terror by the Indian government, another attack is most likely. There is no solution to this problem unless terrorism becomes the one and only agenda of India’s talks with Pakistan. Shashank: How do you think ideally the talks would have been? Parthasarthy: Ideally the talks would have centred on terrorism, on 26/11. Without a proper solution to this looming problem there is no ground, no basis to hold talks with Pakistan.