NEW DELHI, April 29: India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government of having tried to stop a courtesy call President Gen Pervez Musharraf paid on former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. “The latest addition to this long list of mean-minded actions of the UPA government is its recent reported attempt to dissuade the visiting President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, from calling on the former prime minister and chairman of the National Democratic Alliance, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee,” the party said in a letter submitted to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Thursday.
Pakistani diplomats, however, denied the BJP’s charge, saying the Indian foreign ministry had helped arrange Gen Musharraf’s separate meetings with Mr Vajpayee and BJP president Lal Krishna Advani.
“It is heartening to know that Pakistan is such a major factor in the domestic political squabbling in India,” said a senior diplomat.
According to the BJP’s letter, when President Musharraf insisted on meeting Mr Vajpayee, he was advised against doing so by going to the latter’s residence. Reasons of ‘protocol’ were cited for the advice, it said.
“That President Musharraf did call on Shri Vajpayee at his residence is another matter. However, it was entirely graceless, to say the least, on the part of the UPA government to have tried to block the Pakistani president’s visit to someone who has made the boldest and most sincere contribution yet to normalizing the relations between India and Pakistan,” the BJP said.
