Qureshi’s verbal assault on home secretary Pillai, rude talk on Krishna, and Kashmir issue cast shadow over next round of foreign minister-level parleys
Hopes of bridging the trust deficit between India and Pakistan crash-landed in Islamabad after Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s belligerent posturing before the media on Thursday. On Friday, there was no hint of things getting better on the bilateral dialogue front.
Stung by Qureshi comparing home secretary GK Pillai to terrorist Hafiz Saeed and then running down visiting Indian foreign minister SM Krishna, alleging that he had come with a limited mandate, the UPA government is rethinking on the future course of Indo-Pak dialogue, sources in the Centre said.
The next round of external affairs minister-level talks, scheduled to be held by the end of this year, seems to be in jeopardy already, with the government contemplating a tough posture to deliver a strong message to Islamabad. “The next round of external affairs minister-level talks may not be held on schedule,” a high level government source said.
Making matters more difficult, the Pakistan foreign minister on Friday took off from where he had left on Thursday. “India’s approach was selective... If we focus on just one issue, it will be difficult to move forward,” he said. He charged India with being obsessed with terrorism and excluding other bilateral issues like Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
“Pakistan’s people and Kashmiris cannot be delinked from the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,” Qureshi said. He said J&K was a part of the negotiations with India and reiterated charges of human rights violations and the imposition of curfew in parts of the state.
Qureshi and Krishna are believed to have a fairly productive discussion on Thursday before bitterness crept in when Pakistan raked up the J&K issue and India insisted on a time frame for completing the trial of the 26/11 terrorists. Islamabad was unwilling to give a time frame to act against the Pakistani masterminds of the Mumbai attacks while on J&K, India maintained the situation was its internal matter.
Krishna, who preferred not to react on the Pillai issue while in Pakistan, said in Delhi there was absolutely no comparison between Pillai and Saeed. “Where is the question of comparison between the two statements? He (Saeed) is a person who has been speaking out of turn against India. He has been crying for jihad against India,” Krishna observed.
The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, had earlier criticised the “mild” response of the government on the matter. It had asked the government to introspect on the future course of Indo-Pak dialogue and also reflect on its “futility and relevance”.
Krishna also clarified there was no ambiguity in his position. “As external affairs minister, leading this delegation, I have confined myself to the mandate given to me and I am quite satisfied,” he said.
—With PTI inputs
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