'We Have No Other Alternative But Talk'

This is an important national as well as an international issue. However,it would not be wise to view Agra Summit talks as a total failure. It has twoaspects. We need to look at the outcome of this talk from the view point ofsuccess as well as failure.

Media management was not handled well and we lacked a bit in our homeworktoo. We should have prepared structured agenda once the invitation had beenextended. Musharraf Saheb wanted the Kashmir to be a core issue. He liked tomeet only Hurriyat Conference leaders. He did not like to meet the ChiefMinister, Shri Farooq Abdullah.

Though India took exception to Musharraf meeting Hurriyat leaders, he ignoredit. This is one of the reasons for the failure of talks. He adopted a very rigidapproach. He behaved in a way that did away with the diplomatic norms while ourcountry was strictly following diplomatic norms. Our civilized way was taken asour weakness. But we have a culture and civilization behind us.

They refused to abide by Shimla Agreement and Lahore Agreement. This wasanother reason of failure of talks. They do not treat cross border terrorism anissue. The congenial atmosphere created as a result of Lahore declaration wasdiluted due to Kargil war. There is only one alternative to the violence, thatis holding peaceful talks. The success of the talk summit is that Hon. PrimeMinister and the Minister of External Affairs tried to restore an atmosphere tohold talks, which was vitiated due to Kargil war.

The foreign mercenaries have showed their cowardice by attacking Amarnathpilgrims in India. This is not an issue of Hindu-Muslim communalism, rather itis an issue that relates to cross border terrorism. The brother of Shri AbdulRashid Shaheen, the Member of this House was shot dead on 11th July.

His fault was that he was a patriot and treated Kashmir as an integral partof India. Both Hindus and Muslims are paying the cost of their patriotism. Iwould not like to defend or criticize the Government on the issue of Agra Summittalks since it is an international issue which is very sensitive. Mulayam SinghYadav talks of India-Pakistan Confederation. However, it is not practical in thechanged scenario. It is a mere utopia.

According to the resolution passed by this House on 22nd February 1994,Pakistan must vacate the part of the J&K occupied forcibly by it and any actof interference by Pakistan in the internal affairs of India would be dealt withstrictly. Would it not be the contempt of this House if we make any statementdeviating from the spirit of that resolution?

I would like to know from Hon. Prime Minister and the Minister of ExternalAffairs as to how far we have succeeded to realize the objectives enshrined inthat resolution and what would be our future course of strategy in this regard.The Prime Minister must take this aspect into consideration before going toIslamabad.

I would like to suggest that our experts and diplomats should seriously thinkover it. We want that the talks should be held with a structured agenda and wemust take all precautions in this regard. This is definitely a success andachievement that the door of negotiations have been opened and we have no otheralternative but talk.