PM defends his joint statement

Defending the joint statement with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Egypt, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has refuted charges of diluting India’s stand on Pakistan and maintained that talks with the neighbour cannot proceed if terrorists from its soil continue to attack India.

At the same time, he made a strong pitch for resumption of dialogue between the two countries, saying: “Unless you want to go to war with Pakistan, the only way is to talk, to go step by step. It is our obligation to keep the channels of communications open.”

The PM made it clear that he favours to pursue a policy of “trust but verify” with Pakistan.

Singh also sounded confident over the issue of Balochistan in the joint statement. “We are willing to look at Balochistan because we have nothing to hide. I told Gilani we have no interest in destabilising Pakistan. We don’t want to harm Pakistan. So, we are not scared of discussing any issue,” the PM said during his intervention in the Lok Sabha debate on his recent foreign trips. He also categorically said that Pakistan had not given any dossier on Balochistan so far.

While the party initially showed reluctance to back the PM, today it was a different moment. Congress President Sonia Gandhi thumped the desk regularly during his speech. General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, when asked to react, told reporters later: “The prime minister is always convincing.” During the speech, Congress speaker P C Chako also sounded a similar note with the PM on Balochistan and the UPA’s better achievement on relations with Pakistan than that of NDA.

Reiterating his government’s zero-tolerance policy against terror, the PM said: “I have told Gilani and Zardari that another attack on India will put an intolerable strain on bilateral relations. Pakistan must defeat terrorism before being consumed by it. I think the current leadership understands this. But they need to take the same step against the terror groups on Pakistan’s eastern border as they are taking along its western border.”

The PM also added that the sentence on delinking in statement has been misinterpreted.

He also slammed the NDA and said: “For the first time, Pakistan admitted that terrorists are operating from its soil against India. The dossier handed over to us by Pakistan says Lashkar-e-Toiba is responsible for 26/11. It is a response we got from Pakistan that the NDA never got,” the PM said amid applause from the Treasury Bench.