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| Govt toughens position against Pak as BJP threatens to take on | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, FEB 19: Some tough positioning by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram against Pakistan before the February 25 meeting of Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan in New Delhi has come at a time when BJP conclave that concluded today at Indore decided to take on Government’s Kashmir policy and its decision to talk to Islamabad within two weeks of Pune bomb blast.
Obviously, not only Chidambaram but also Union Defence Minister AK Antony tried to cover their tracks before BJP could come down with full blow against the Government’s move in these respects by dubbing it as soft, meek and reconciliatory.
Chidambaram tried to assure on Friday that the pending issue of November 26, 2008 attack on Mumbai would be taken up during February 25 talks between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries. Also Antony and Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor talked of increased infiltration bids by militants from across the border since the beginning of this year and also the continued functioning by about 43 training camps across the line of control.
All these assertions have, significantly, come at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party started flexing its muscles during the three day confabulations among its top brass drawn from all over the country to Indore for the meeting of the party’s national executive and national council that threatened to take on the Government within and outside Parliament on the issue of price rise and move to grant autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir besides readying a package for amnesty to the youth from Kashmir Valley who crossed the border during the height of militancy.
The last of these issues has, in fact, been dealt by the BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad at length even before the Indore conclave began. He asked as to who would take the guarantee of the youth proposed to be brought here following surrender by them. He said that this could become official chain for infiltration and went on to add that even the Congress was not one behind the move initiated in tandem by Chidambaram and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The BJP spokesman also said that he saw a “silver-lining” in the doubts raised by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad regarding the surrender and rehabilitation move of the Government. After this Chidambaram while on a visit of Jammu was asked about Azad’s apprehensions against the surrender and amnesty move for militants where Home Minister said that this has been taken into account and, thus, the process may take longer to take shape than expected.
As for the talks with Pakistan the leading lights of the BJP like Arun Jaitley, LK Advani and Narendra Modi have been up in arms and the last of them has been quoted as saying from Indore that the Government should talk to BJP before talking to Pakistan.
LK Advani has also expressed the apprehension that the Government is coming to terms to talk to Islamabad amid US pressure. Though Washington has been cautious of direct involvement in bringing India and Pakistan to talks, several US officials and the White House have expressed satisfaction over the decision to hold Foreign Secretaries meeting on February 25.
Thus, it would be interesting to see how the Government steers through the domestic as well as international pressure while talking to Salman Bashir the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan. And for this the Government mandarins are working here overtime and continuously updating the strategy to be adopted to see the talk through without a Sharm-el-Sheikh like fiasco where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of officials was blamed by mainly BJP as also others of giving in too much before Pakistan’s astute diplomacy.
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