NEW DELHI, April 30: India acknowledged on Wednesday that Pakistan was trying to create the right atmosphere for talks even as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government was slammed by the opposition in parliament for speaking in several and often contradictory voices about his peace overtures.
Congress leader Jaipal Reddy pointed to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and the foreign ministry for making statements that were at variance with what they were given to believe by Mr Vajpayee as a peace move.
A foreign ministry spokesman struck a cautious note on the evolving India-Pakistan ties on Wednesday, saying it was “too early” to say as to what areas could see forward movement in bilateral relations following the telephone contact between the prime ministers of the two countries.
He made it clear that creation of a conducive atmosphere for talks “necessarily” required an end to cross-border terrorism and dismantling of terrorist infrastructure.
Answering questions on what might be the next steps after the conversation between the Pakistani and Indian premiers on Monday, the spokesman said the areas under consideration had been spelt out.
“These are elements intended to move the bilateral relations forward,” he said. The two prime ministers had agreed to consider people-to-people contacts, cultural exchanges, economic cooperation, civil aviation and sporting links. “What is to move forward and when, I am afraid, I will not have an answer. Fortunately, I am a spokesman, not a soothsayer.”
“But the intention of both sides is to create a conducive atmosphere which necessarily requires an end to cross-border terrorism and dismantling of terrorist infrastructure. The telephonic conversation, we hope, will contribute to that end,” the spokesman added.
The government had stepped in on Tuesday to point out that comments by Mr Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party that he had rejected Mr Jamali’s invitation to Mr Vajpayee was not official policy.
The Press Trust of India reporting from parliament said Mr Vajpayee’s coalition partners, the Samata Party and Janata Dal(U), along with the opposition in the Lok Sabha “strongly demanded” that Mr Vajpayee take the House into confidence on the ‘hand of friendship’ extended by him to Pakistan and consider other related developments.
“Recalling the failure of the Agra Summit attended by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in 2001, Prabhunath Singh (of Defence Minister George Fernandes’ Samata Party) and D.P. Yadav (JD-U) said the entire country was in the dark on the initiative taken by the prime minister,” PTI said.
Raising the issue in the post-lunch session, Congress Deputy Leader Shivraj V. Patil said while the opposition did not want to know details of the developments, the government should proceed with due preparation.
Echoing similar sentiments, Ramjilal Suman of the Samajwadi Party, which has a mass base among Muslims, wanted to know whether a congenial atmosphere had been created for talks with Pakistan “which has been sponsoring cross-border terrorism.”
Soon after parliament assembled in the morning, Samata party MP Prabhunath Singh said reports had appeared in newspapers that Mr Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart had a telephonic talk and that he was even invited to visit Islamabad. “We are not against dialogue but there must be some basis for it,” he said, recalling that whenever India initiated peace talks, “we had to face problems.”