New Delhi, March 02: Slamming Union minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor for his remark that Saudi Arabia could act as an interlocutor between India and Pakistan, the BJP on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put an end to his “irresponsible” statements.
“Shashi Tharoor must now stop irresponsibly tweeting always. He is an MoS (foreign relations) and he cannot be so casual. It is directly the PM’s responsibility. We denounce his comments,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters here. “The nation does not agree with this. The policy of the country does not allow this third party mediation. So, this is utterly irresponsible behaviour, unbecoming of a minister. The PM must act now,” Javadekar said.
Tharoor, who is accompanying the PM during his three-day visit to the oil-rich kingdom, said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia can be a “valuable interlocutor” between India and Pakistan. However, he quickly clarified that he did not mean that Saudi Arabia should be a mediator.
Tharoor strongly argued that he had been misinterpreted as he had not used the word “mediation or anything like that”. He also tweeted, ruing the misinterpretation of the word “interlocutor”, while insisting that an “interlocutor was different from a mediator”.
But with a row threatening to build up back home, the PM had to clarify matters through a press statement.
“A section of the media has misread my remarks. What I basically said was that Saudi Arabia is a valuable interlocutor for India. Any other interpretation was neither meant nor warranted,” Tharoor said.
On Saturday, Tharoor had been asked whether India expected Saudi Arabia, given their close ties with Islamabad, to help address the terror threat from Pakistan. “We feel that Saudi Arabia has a long and close relationship with Pakistan, that makes Saudi Arabia even more a valuable interlocutor for, when we tell them about our experience, Saudi Arabia listens as somebody who is not in any way an enemy of Pakistan, but a friend of Pakistan and, therefore, will listen with sympathy and concern to a matter of this nature,” he had said.
With the news of “departure” playing big on channels back home, Tharoor questioned the interpretation. “An interlocutor is someone you speak to. If I speak to you, you are my interlocutor. I mentioned the Saudis as our interlocutors, i.e. the people we are here to speak to,” he tweeted.
-Agencies