Talks ruled out India blames Pakistan for Agra summit failure
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, April 14: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Monday ruled out talks with Pakistan, but Defence Minister George Fernandes, apparently mindful of the adverse fallout of New Delhi’s recent “pre-emptive strike” thesis, played it down as a casual view.
Mr Vajpayee, speaking in Sikkim, cited alleged cross-border terrorism to rule out early talks with Islamabad, but, in a rarely heard explanation for the failure of the Agra summit, he blamed it on President Pervez Musharraf’s reluctance to accept Jammu and Kashmir as part of India.
The rowing back by Mr Fernandes on India’s pre-emptive strike thesis, whereby it had sought to equate Pakistan with Iraq, comes after two rounds of diplomatic friction with Washington, first over India’s criticism of the Iraq war and then over targeting of Pakistan.
Mr Vajpayee, speaking to reporters in Sikkim, said: “Pakistan must stop cross-border terrorism to build a conducive atmosphere for talks. New Delhi has gone as far as to tell Pakistan that it is ready to hold talks on Jammu and Kashmir if only cross-border terrorism ends in the valley. But it is continuing.”
The Indian premier said the most recent example of “this terrorism” was the massacre of 24 Kashmiri Hindus in Nadimarg.
He said the Agra Summit in July 2001 had failed because of president Musharraf’s refusal to consider Jammu and Kashmir a part of India.
“Musharraf was here for talks but that could not succeed as he refused to accept Jammu and Kashmir as part of this country,” Mr Vajpayee said at the end of a four-day visit to the state, bordering China.
Speaking of the war in Iraq that India has opposed, Mr Vajpayee said: “We hope our good relations with Iraq will continue even after installation of an alternative regime in that country.”
Mr Fernandes, seeking to clear the air on Pakistan, told New Delhi Television news channel in an interview that too much had been made of a recent comment by Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha.
Mr Sinha was quoted as saying that India had a case for a pre- emptive strike against Pakistan.
The defence minister said the foreign minister had only made a “casual statement”, not a policy announcement.
“I do not think the foreign minister spoke of a pre-emptive strike. He was simply making a statement that if Iraq deserved this kind of thing because the rule there was one-party, dictatorial, then Pakistan also falls into the same category. What I said was that when the question was put to him what he said was right — that Pakistan falls into the same category,” Mr Fernandes said.
Asked if Mr Sinha was suggesting some kind of pre-emptive strike on Pakistan by the United States, Fernandes said: “No. It was purely a proposition that came to his mind. There was no suggestion to anybody that he or she should take any kind of action.. But essentially it was a very casual statement. Not a policy statement or a considered view. This was simply his understanding of the situation.”
