The Hindu : National : Commerce should precede Kashmir issue: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 21, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Commerce should precede Kashmir issue: Advani

Islamabad: Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has said Pakistan’s insistence on describing the Kashmir problem as the “core issue” in bilateral ties “would not achieve anything,” and wanted other matters such as commerce to precede it.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said although he encouraged the composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan, he believed that other issues such as information and commerce should precede Kashmir.

“Kashmir later,” Mr. Advani said in an interview to Dawn News, Pakistan’s leading English news channel.

Mr. Advani said though the Kashmir problem would take time to resolve, he was optimistic that a day would come when India and Pakistan would form a confederation to solve the issue.

He stressed that cross-border terrorism was the bone of contention in the peace process.

While acknowledging that militancy had decreased along the border, he said it was still there in India.

Mr. Advani was of the view that until this problem was dealt with, there could be no progress in the peace process.

The former Deputy Prime Minister spoke on a wide range of issues in the interview, including communalism, prospects of peace between India and Pakistan and the 2001 Agra Summit.

Mr. Advani said he was “incorrectly” blamed for the summit’s failure by President Pervez Musharraf.

Far from being the cause of its failure, Mr. Advani said he was, in fact, one of the architects of the summit. According to him, it was President Musharraf’s inflexibility that led to the meeting’s failure. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National