An unusually combative Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took on BJP leader L K Advani in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday to trash the latter’s charge that India was talking to Pakistan under US pressure and also altering its stand on Jammu and Kashmir.
“You are using this forum to sow seeds,” said the PM, underlining that he was refraining from completing the sentence. The PM made his intervention when Advani claimed that there was a change in the US’s stand on Indo-Pak relations after President Barack Obama took charge and quoted reports about secret parleys between India and Pakistan.
“What you are attributing to President Obama is certainly not true. I had a number of discussions with President Obama and there is no change in the US policy,” Singh shot back, amidst applause from party members. Advani was speaking on the motion of thanks over the President’s address.
Reminiscent of the verbal duel between the two leaders during the last Lok Sabha poll campaign, Singh countered Advani more than twice, shooting down his allegations and terming the questions raised “hypothetical.”
To Advani’s demand that Parliament should be taken into confidence about all parleys with Pakistan, Singh replied: “How many times did Jaswant Singh have secret talks with Strobe Talbott? Did you tell Parliament about it? Why are you insisting that I should answer your hypothetical questions?”
Citing western media and intelligence reports to raise questions about India changing its stand on J&K, Advani sought to allege that the US was putting pressure for its own gains in Afghanistan. “The road to peace in Kabul goes through Kashmir,” said Advani, quoting reports that also mentioned “secret back channel talks” between India and Pakistan before the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
“Agar koi gopniye samjhauta Kashmir ke bare me ho raha hai to bahut gambhir hai (If some secret deal is being struck over Kashmir, then it is very dangerous),” said Advani, reminding the House that it had passed a unanimous resolution in 1994 on J&K being an integral part of India.
The PM also sought to set the records straight when Advani alleged that the government was not fulfilling its promise of “one rank one pension” for the armed forces. “Whatever the government promised has been implemented,” said Singh.
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