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PM’s office denies report of ‘secret’ connect with Ashraf Pervez Kayani

It also denied that there was mutual distrust alternating with bonhomie between political leaders and civil society representatives on both sides.

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The prime minister’s office (PMO) has promptly refuted a report in a London newspaper that there was an attempt to open a secret communication channel with Pakistan Army chief Ashraf Pervez Kayani as part of the thaw in the relations between India and Pakistan. It also denied that there was mutual distrust alternating with bonhomie between political leaders and civil society representatives on both sides. The prime minister’s media advisor, Harish Khare, issued a statement on Sunday denying the media report and termed it ‘false’.

“We have seen media reports quoting a British newspaper saying that prime minister Manmohan Singh contacted Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani before the Mohali meeting between the two prime ministers. The report is false,” Khare said in a statement.

However, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, who is known to be passionate about improving relations between India and Pakistan, has taken a characteristically unorthodox view.

“Whatever the statement from the PMO, there have always been contacts between the armed forces and civilian governments of the two countries,” he said. “I welcome any interaction whether with the civilian or the armed forces that is uninterrupted and uninterruptible.”

He argued that secularism in India cannot be consolidated unless India improved ties with Pakistan, which, too, on its part, should understand that hostility towards India has not helped in strengthening Pakistan’s nationhood.

The former Union minister said India could not get her rightful place on the global stage unless there was peace in the subcontinent, and that being the sixth populous nation in the world Pakistan should be in the frontline of its own interests and not be a frontline state of others’ interests.

The BJP has taken a cautious stand on the issue. The party’s chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member, Ravi Shankar Prasad, told DNA: “First of all, facts are not known. We do know, however, that the army plays a decisive role in Pakistan’s politics. If at all it (the prime minister’s office) has tried to make contact with Kayani, we hope the government has taken into consideration all the consequences of such an overture.”

The Left, however, went a step further and has demanded an explanation from the government: “What we are saying is that India-Pakistan dialogue should be open and continuous. As a political party we are for dialogue to sort out the outstanding issues between the two countries. Whether it should be at the diplomatic level or at another level, the government has to explain. We do not know the details,” said D Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

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