New Delhi, July 18: Terming as “sheer betrayal” and “U-turn” India’s agreement with Pakistan that terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process, BJP on Friday said the government has “surrendered under international pressure”.
“We will strongly oppose this (the joint statement by India and Pakistan delinking terrorism from composite dialogue). India has surrendered under international pressure … We staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha on the issue. Under no circumstances will BJP compromise on this,” Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told.
Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar also said, “This step by India has come as a shock. It is sheer betrayal and U-turn by the government. They are buckling under international pressure.”
Ms. Swaraj said her party position is that once terrorism is taken out of the dialogue process, it could no longer be called “composite”.
“The dialogue ceases to be composite the moment terrorism is removed from it…We call it composite as economic issues, trade relations and cultural ties are discussed along with terrorism.
“If terrorism is set aside, then how does the dialogue become composite? It ceases to be composite as a composite dialogue has to be all-pervasive,” she said.
“We will oppose this move by the government,” Ms. Swaraj added.
Ms. Swaraj said nothing was ever final in diplomacy and BJP was not open to dialogue with Pakistan “unless and until” terrorism was included among the issues to be discussed.
She argued that Pakistan had only made an oral commitment on curbing terrorism and such assurances had no credibility.
The BJP leader also said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement in the Lok Sabha today on the issue had come as a “big disappointment”.
She said the erstwhile NDA regime had taken several measures to improve bilateral relations with Pakistan but never compromised on the issue of terrorism.
“The NDA government took the initiative and leaders travelled to Lahore by bus and held a cordial meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,” Ms. Swaraj said.
Despite the Kargil war which occurred soon thereafter, the NDA government invited then President Pervez Musharraf for the Agra summit.”The Agra talks broke down as Musharraf maintained what we call terrorism in Kashmir as freedom struggle and Kashmir should be made the core issue of the talks,” she said.
In the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks, the UPA government rightly took a “tough stand” against Pakistan till the Joint Statement in Sharm el-Sheikh. BJP was ready and would call for a structured debate on the issue in Lok Sabha as suggested by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, Swaraj added.
Another BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy dubbed the government’s move as an attempt to “dilute” India’s fight against terror. “There was no reason to dilute the intensity of our crusade against terror which we believe is the nation’s priority,” Mr. Rudy said.
–Agencies