ISLAMABAD, March 9: Indian Information Minister Sushma Swaraj has attributed the failure of Agra summit to Pakistan’s refusal to denounce ‘cross-border terrorism’ and India’s rejection of Islamabad’s demand to accept Kashmir as the ‘core issue’.

“Our position was that Kashmir was one of the issues and if it was made a core issue then we would go to the core of the core issue, then there would be no end to it,” she said talking to Dawn on Saturday.

The Indian minister disagreed with a perception that some hawks in the Indian cabinet were responsible for keeping the Indian Prime Minister from signing on an ‘agreed draft’.

She said the media by describing her as one of the ‘hawks’ in the Indian cabinet was giving her credit which she did not deserve. “There are no hawks or doves in the Indian cabinet and the decisions are taken by consensus.”

When asked if her visit to Pakistan, no matter what the overt purpose, signalled a testing of domestic waters by the Indian government for de-escalation, Ms Sushma Swaraj answered in the negative and implied that unless the objectives of the steps taken by India were achieved, there was no question of de-escalation.

In answer to another question, she said there was no widespread opposition in India against the steps taken by the Indian government in this regard.

“As a matter of fact it is a popular move, because you see people in general like their governments to ensure protection of life and property of their citizens,” she added.

Answering a question on the communal riots in Gujarat, she said both Hindus and Muslims were killed and the entire Indian nation was concerned about the outbreak of such an intense communal conflict.

“There is no question of the Indian Muslims losing confidence in their country as the riots were brought under control within three days in a province where such riots in the past had spread to no less than 100 cities and towns. They were further reassured as they saw for themselves that police, while defending them, had shot dead many Hindus,” she added.

When asked what she thought was the reason for the defeat of BJP in the recent state polls, she said it was the anti-incumbency and anti-establishment factor which worked against the sitting governments in those states. “However, it is too early to draw any concrete conclusions about the impact of these elections on the overall politics of India.”

When it was suggested to her that the BJP came to power on the ‘Chariot of Ayodhya’ and the same issue was now causing its downfall, she said her party had never exploited the issue of Babri mosque and during the 1999 elections it was not even used as a political issue.

She disagreed with the suggestion that Saarc has become a toothless organization and said that there was a lot of potential in it.

“You see it depends on whether the participants are serious in their efforts or just killing the time and as far as this meeting (the three-day Saarc information ministers conference) is concerned there was genuine and serious feeling of doing the right things and a lot more can be done through pooling of resources and technical advancement that has taken place in the information technology. Moreover, there was a consensus on the decisions that were made in the meeting and I am hopeful about their implementation,” she added.

When quizzed how enthusiastic India itself was about Saarc, she said the very fact that she was sent to this meeting despite the crisis between India and Pakistan indicated that India was very serious about making this organization a dynamic entity.

When told that since India bordered five of the seven member countries it was obliged to play a more effective role than what it had been doing, she said India did play a very effective role but it did not like to create the impression of being the big brother.

She did not agree with the suggestion that India’s own size, its economy and other such aspects, which made it look very large in comparison to all the other members put together, had served as stumbling block in the way of India playing a more effective role in Saarc.

When her attention was drawn towards the Indian efforts to set up Sri Lanka-South India free zone and BD-East India free zone, perceived in Pakistan as Indian bid to render Saarc redundant, she disagreed.