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Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

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Foreign policy gains lost: Sinha

By Neena Vyas

RANCHI, NOV. 25. The Bharatiya Janata Party today criticised the ``manner of implementation of India's foreign policy'' by the United Progressive Alliance Government, especially the handling of the bilateral dialogue with Pakistan to take forward the peace process.

The former External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, said that India-Pakistan relations were ``accident-prone'' and the ``accident'' could result from actions of a ``third party.'' He then went on to hint that ``the decision by the United States to supply F-16s to Pakistan'' was one such action and this ``could not only jeopardise the peace process (between India and Pakistan) but also have an (adverse) impact on India-U.S. relations.''

The burden of the three-page foreign policy resolution adopted by the BJP's national executive committee here today was that the Vajpayee Government had implemented foreign policy ``better'' than the UPA Government.

``Achievement diluted''

Mr. Sinha took the Manmohan Singh Government to task for ``diluting'' what had been achieved under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the January 6, 2004 joint declaration in Islamabad after a meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, a charge the party has repeated earlier. The allegation was that India had lost what was achieved earlier — a commitment in writing by Pakistan to eschew violence and not allow Pakistan's territory to be used by terrorists for staging violent attacks on India.

The resolution stated that ``because of the inept handling of this (UPA) Government state-sponsored cross-border terrorism from Pakistan has become almost a non-issue ... infiltration continues unabated ... '' and recently terrorists struck with impunity the day the Prime Minister was in Srinagar.

Mr. Sinha said that nothing much had been achieved by the visit of the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, over the last two days — not even the starting of a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. Mr. Sinha and the resolution charged that the present Government had allowed the peace process with Pakistan ``to become wholly Kashmir-centric.'' The party resolution stated that Jammu and Kashmir is and will always remain an integral part of India. While ``completely rejecting'' Gen. Musharraf's publicly-announced proposal on Jammu and Kashmir, the resolution adopted by the BJP described as ``ridiculous'' the fact that Hurriyat leaders met the Pakistan Prime Minister in New Delhi ``while at the same time they refused to meet the Prime Minister or the Home Minister of India.'' It said Pakistan's demand that the Hurriyat be included as a ``third party'' in the India-Pakistan dialogue process was ``unwarranted and unacceptable.''

However, when Mr. Sinha was asked whether a similar episode had not occurred at the time of the Agra Summit during the Vajpayee regime when Hurriyat leaders met Mr. Musharraf in New Delhi and not Mr. Vajpayee, he said that ``the new Government should not commit mistakes that may have been committed by our Government.''

U.S.-Pakistan ties

In response to questions Mr. Sinha also admitted that moves had been made by the United States for the supply of F-16s to Pakistan during the NDA regime, but a final decision had not been taken. He did add that the Vajpayee Government was indeed taken back when at that time the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, had announced that Pakistan had been accorded the ``major non-NATO ally'' status by the U.S. immediately after a visit to India.

Finally, the BJP asserted that it would have failed in its ``national duty'' if it had not commented on the failure of the Manmohan Singh Government's implementation of the peace process with Pakistan.

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