'Talks Failed As There Was No Basis Of Talks'

Speeches given today are quite opposite to the views expressed in the meetingof all party leaders held prior to Agra Summit. Congress party says that ShimlaAgreement and Lahore Agreement should be treated as basis for any dialoguebetween the two countries.

All leaders said that cross border terrorism should be our core issue. Weshould also talk to Pakistan to get our POWs released from prison there.Communist Party leader said that we should also talk about poverty, starvation,unemployment, trade matters etc.

Then it was said that Kashmir is a part of India and we should not talk toPakistan even for giving an inch of Kashmir to them. We should not concede onthis point. We should also talk to Pakistan about the condition of Gurudwarasand temples there. Thus we reached consensus on all these issues.

I want to know the single issue out of these which has not been raised by thePrime Minister. This Government did not surrender on any issue of the agenda andit has happened for the first time. Ours is the first Prime Minister in last 50years who did not concede to Pakistan’s terms.

During the summit, President of Pakistan acted against internationalprotocol. He was told to avoid a meeting with Hurriyat Conference, but he wentahead with it. He did not invite Maharaja Karan Singh, Dr. Farooq Abdullah orany other elected representative of Jammu and Kashmir.

That is why, all constituents of the NDA boycotted the tea party. IfPresident Musharraf considers Hurriyat as the only representative of the peopleof J & K and invites them to the tea party, it is not fair.

The Pakistani President termed the terrorists operating in Kashmir as freedomfighters. But these terrorists have been committing grave atrocities on theinnocent people and indulging in ruthless murders.

All hideouts of terrorists in Pakistan must be attacked and destroyed. It isregrettable that the Opposition, instead of launching an scathing attack onPakistan, is criticising this Government.

I think that the talks failed as there was no basis of talks. As regards PakOccupied Kashmir, President Musharraf was told in clear terms that if Kashmirwas the core issue, then we shall have to go further into the core of this coreissue.

However, the biggest achievement of this summit is that the Pakistan hasrealised for the first time that while having a dialogue with India, it cannotmake our country succumb to its own terms. For this, our hon. Prime Ministerdeserves congratulation.