BJP blames Pakistan for collapse of peace talks

NEW DELHI: BJP on Friday held Pakistan responsible for the “collapse” of the peace talks with India, even as it felt that external affairs minister S M Krishna should have reacted to foil his Pakistani counterpart’s attempts to compare Indian home secretary G K Pillai with JuD founder Hafeez Saeed.

While the principal Opposition party was harsh in its criticism of Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, accusing him of breaching diplomatic “protocol”, it once again questioned the Manmohan Singh government’s enthusiasm in pressing ahead with the dialogue process.

“After the collapse of the peace talks, misunderstanding between the sides has become greater. The trust deficit is much more now,” former Union minister Yashwant Sinha pointed out.

“It’s not peace talks with Pakistan, it is war talk. For them, it was war talk,” the BJP leader added.
The former external affairs minister blasted Mr Qureshi, accusing him of violating all diplomatic norms by undertaking his latest bout of anti-India tirade. “He has breached all known diplomatic norms by briefing the media in Pakistan separately when the Indian external affairs minister was still in Pakistan,” Mr Sinha said.

He blamed the Pakistani side for taking the relations between the two sides backwards. “Yesterday, in the joint press conference, they tried to put up a brave front by showing that the dialogue process will be sustained,” the BJP leader observed: “But after today’s remarks, it is quite clear that the dialogue process has collapsed.”

Breaking all protocol, the Pakistani foreign minister, Mr Sinha argued, had accused Mr Krishna of being unprepared, of seeking instructions during talks by repeatedly calling New Delhi, and of not being serious about a fruitful outcome. “This was completely contrary to what was said yesterday,” the former Union minister said.

The BJP leader also took Mr Krishna to task for his refusal to join issues with his Pakistani counterpart on his outburst against the Indian home secretary. “If the foreign minister had indeed agreed with Mr Qureshi that the remarks about Mr Pillai were uncalled for, then it’s a very serious matter. After all, the home secretary had merely repeated what everyone in the government has said at some point or the other that the ISI was involved in the 26/11 terror attack,” the BJP leader remarked.

“So if Mr Krishna has agreed with Mr Qureshi, then he has negated all these. If he has not agreed, then he should have contradicted the latter, which he did not do,” Mr Sinha contended.

Citing the collapse of the peace talks as an important lesson, the BJP leader hit out at those who had been leading a campaign in its favour. “Advocates of dialogue say we must carry on with the dialogue process. What they don’t understand is that such an exercise can be counter-productive,” he said.

It can, the BJP leader argued, have either of the three fallout on relations between the two sides. “First, progress through dialogue. Second, no progress at all, and, third, slide backwards.”
In this case, relations, Mr Sinha claimed, had slid backwards.