New Delhi, July 29: Under fire from the opposition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday asserted there was no dilution or rupture of national consensus on countering terrorism emanating from Pakistan, but made it clear there was no alternative but to continue the engagement with Islamabad.
Allaying apprehensions over the move to delink action on terrorism from the composite dialogue process as contained in the India-Pakistan joint statement issued in Egypt July 16, the prime minister told parliament that bilateral engagement or dialogue process can’t move forward if terrorist attacks continue from across the border.
“It is, therefore, in our vital interest to make sincere efforts to live in peace with Pakistan. But despite the best of intentions, we cannot move forward if terrorist attacks launched from Pakistani soil continue to kill and injure our citizens, here and abroad,” Manmohan Singh said while replying ito the debate in the Lok Sabha on India-Pakistan issues and the government’s recent foreign policy initiatives.
“That is the national position. I stand by it,” the prime minister said while forcefully repudiating the opposition’s contention that the joint statement amounted to rupturing the national consensus over cross-border terrorism.
In his reasoned and spirited 45-minute intervention at the end of an intense debate, Manmohan Singh quite naturally focussed on his much-misunderstood Pakistan initiative
but also spoke on a wide range of issues, including relations with the US, climate change and a G8 statement objecting to nuclear commerce with countries that have not acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
According to the prime minister, “it is impossible for any government in India to work towards full normalisation of relations with Pakistan unless the government of Pakistan fulfills, in letter and spirit, its commitment not to allow its territory to be used in any manner for terrorist activities against India.”
“The people of India expect these assurances to be honoured and this government recognizes that as the national consensus,” he maintained.
Manmohan Singh also disclosed for the first time to parliament the reason, which has intrigued many, that prompted a change in his position from his tough no-nonsense message to President Asif Ali Zardari at Yekaterinburg June 16 to his more nuanced position on engagement at the level of foreign secretaries in Egypt a month later during his talks with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
“Yashwant Sinha asked me what had changed between my meeting with President Zardari and the meeting with Prime Minister Gilani,” Manmohan Singh said while referring to the BJP leader’s accusation of “a complete turnaround” in the government’s stand in a month’s time.
“In between came the dossier which showed progress, though not adequate progress,” he said. “Sinha also asked me do we trust Pakistan? Let me say that in the affairs of two neighbours we should recall what (US) president (Ronald) Reagan once said – trust but verify. There is no other way unless we go to war,” he said.
Manmohan Singh stressed that this was the first time that Pakistan has “ever formally briefed India on the results of an investigation into a terrorist attack in India” and countered the opposition’s attack saying this was “far more than the NDA government was ever able to extract from Pakistan during its entire tenure despite all their tall talk.”
Making a strong pitch for continuing engagement with Islamabad, Manmohan Singh said the failure to talk directly with Pakistan will means reliance on third parties. “That route, I submit to this august House, has very severe limitations as to its effectiveness, and for the longer term the involvement of foreign powers in South Asia is not something to our liking,” he said.
“I say with strength and conviction that dialogue and engagement is the best way forward,” he stressed. “It’s our obligation to keep the channels of communication open,” Manmohan Singh said while alluding to efforts by the US and Iran to start a dialogue and repair their ties that have been strained for three decades.
The prime minister also defended the controversial inclusion of Balochistan in the joint statement – the first time the B word has figured in any bilateral document between the two countries – Manmohan Singh said India has no interest in destabilising Pakistan.
“I told Prime Minister Gilani that our conduct is an open book. If Pakistan has any evidence, and they have not given me any and no dossier has been given, we are willing to look at it because we have nothing to hide,” he said.
—IANS