NEW DELHI, May 30: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday offered proposals to consolidate the ongoing confidence building measures with Pakistan, including joint water resources management in Jammu and Kashmir. However, he warned that peace talks between the two countries were still vulnerable to the next terrorist attack.
“If we have a major attack like the one on parliament, that could upset the whole process,” the premier told a group of foreign correspondents he had invited to his residence to mark his one year in the office. Asked to comment on the American opposition to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, he said that all the parties could work together to make the pipeline a reality, indicating that India was also engaged in a dialogue with the US on the issue.
Dr Singh said that he was willing to discuss all issues with Pakistan, ‘including what President Musharraf calls the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir’, but ruled out ‘further division of India on religious grounds or redrawing of the boundaries’.
“Within these limitations, the two of us must work together to create an environment to take the peace process forward,” he said. He said that suggestions for a clear timeframe to resolve the Kashmir issue were ‘unrealistic’ but offered to work with President Gen Pervez Musharraf to find a meaningful solution to the complicated problems.
Dr Singh said that he looked forward to a visit to Pakistan. “I remain firm in my conviction that we must move towards finding solutions to all outstanding issues…I do not minimise the difficulties that lie ahead.” Recalling his meeting with President Musharraf in New York, he said: “I told him that the first condition for the peace process to smoothly move forward was a control on terrorist acts.”
He said that infiltration in Kashmir had declined although enough had not been done to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and its controlled areas. He said that Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had invited Pakistan’s participation in the Himalayan region’s hydel projects. India might consider granting Jammu and Kashmir greater autonomy if it was found to be necessary, he said.
