Congress Party, Is Solely Responsible'

I commend the steps taken by our Prime Minister. The main charge of theopposition against the summit was that there was no structural agenda and therewas no preparation. In this connection I would put a pertinent question to myfriends from the Opposition.

The meeting of all-Party leaders took place here in Delhi. In that particularmeeting, all the leaders of political parties participated, particularly, theOpposition leaders. In that meeting they did not suggest that if there was noagenda, there should not be any summit. They did not object to that?

Another important question raised particularly by hon. Members Shri MulayamSingh Yadav and Shri Madhavrao Scindia was: Did our Prime Minister take up theissue of securing the release of 54 Prisoners of War languishing in Pakistanijails. Our Prime Minister did take up the issue. I would urge the Pakistan Stateto take urgent and purposeful action to end the agony of the families of thosesoldiers.

I feel so sad about the attitude and aptitude of our media persons,particularly those of the Press and the electronic media. They were giving allkudos to the President of Pakistan. Ours is a democracy, the tallest democracyof the world. So, we have given our hospitality, but that hospitality wasexploited by General Musharraf, violating all the norms of diplomacy.

General Musharraf faced the music in Kargil, the music of fiasco and failure,and once again, here at Agra Summit because he is no match to the Prime Ministerof India or he is rather amateur in the field of diplomacy.

My friends referred to the situation in the Kashmir Valley. Who isresponsible for that? I raise my accusing finger against the Congress Party,which is solely responsible for the present scenario.

There is one more thing. Some of our friends, including Shri Chandra Shekhar,said that our Prime Minister should not go to Pakistan because he does certainthings. After his Lahore trip, success came in the international arena.Likewise, he knows when, where, how and what steps to take. The Agra Summit wasa great failure for Musharraf.