Oppn in India accuses govt of surrendering to US

New Delhi, July 30 (PTI) Opposition in India Thursday
accused the government of "surrendering" to the US and
allowing an "infringement on the sovereignty" of the country
and warned that India should not pursue talks with Pakistan
unless it took credible steps to control terrorism.

Resuming the short duration debate on the recent foreign
visits of the Prime Minister, Basudeb Acharia Communist Party
of India-Marxist (CPI-M) criticised the End User Monitoring
Agreement with US.

"US will have the right to check our weapon system...
India cannot even modify or maintain (the weapons supplied by
US)...Inspector from America will inspect. This is nothing but
infringement on our sovereignty," he said.

Pointing out that India had no such arrangement with any
other country, he said "our independence has been surrendered
to the US." He also questioned the need for signing the
Indo-US nuclear deal.

Anant Geete (Shiv Sena) said there were two instances
when India should have attacked Pakistan.

"I don't support war but there were two instances when
we should have attacked Pakistan. One was when the Indian
Parliament was attacked. A government with our support was in
power then. The second was during the 26/11 Mumbai terror
attack," he said.

Geete opposed any composite dialogue between the two
sides till Pakistan took credible action against terrorism.

"Pakistan treats India as its enemy. Whichever party
has been in power in India, all our Home Ministers have said
Pakistan is involved in terror acts," he said.

Advani contended that if India had nothing to hide, it
should have objected and that mention should have been made in
the Joint Statement.

He expressed concern over mention of Balochistan for the
first time in any joint statement even as he noted that
Pakistan's accusations of Indian interference in Balochistan,
levelled for long, was "absurd and bunkum".

He said a section of the Congress was unhappy over the
mention and even experts have expressed dissatisfaction over
the Prime Minister's explanation over the issue.

"After Prime Minister's address, you have nothing to say
and it is pointless to participate in the discussion," Advani
told Krishna who was cornered by opposition members while
seeking answers on Balochistan.

Earlier, Mukherjee, former External Affairs Minister,
made a strong defence of the government over the statement,
asserting that there was no question of compromising India's
position on the issue of terrorism.

He reminded BJP that even the previous NDA government had
continued to have talks with Pakistan since 1999 despite
disruptions caused by terror attacks.

"Talking does not mean full fledged dialogue. Talking
does not mean surrendering," Mukherjee said, while taking
strong objection to opposition's charge that the basics of the
country's foreign policy have been altered.

Underlining that India will have to remain engaged with
Pakistan while pursing "zero tolerance" for terrorism, he said
"We cannot erase Pakistan. Pakistan is going to exist....War
mongering is not the way. War is no solution."

According to Mukherjee's interpretation, the joint
statement spells out that Pakistan need not wait for composite
dialogue to act against terrorism.

"Action against terrorism is independent of composite
dialogue. There may be composite dialogue or there may not be,
but every country is obliged to act against terrorism," he
said while trying to justify the joint statement.

Insisting that the foreign policy pursued after the
Mumbai attacks had established that India had not succumbed,
Mukherjee said, however, that "The world is changing. We
cannot keep our policy straight-jacketed."

Contending that the basic tenets of the foreign policy --
to develop brotherly relations with neighbours -- remained
unchanged, he said the UPA "is not going to succumb. There is
no question of compromising our position in respect of
terrorism."

Mukherjee said India's position remained that Pakistan
must act "credibly" and "verifiably" to dismantle the terror
infrastructure operating from its soil.

He said it is Pakistan's "primary responsibility" and in
its interest along with that of India to dismantle terror
infrastructure. "Then only we will be safe, we will be safe."

On Balochistan, Mukherjee said the "internal matter" of
Pakistan has existed since 1950s. "We have not done anything
there. We have no intention to do anything there," he said.

Advani said he was sure that Singh would have made this
known to Gilani during their meeting. "But, our objection is
why our point of view is not there (in the statement)... It
will be coming again and again."

Responding, Mukherjee said "you may have your objections.
You are not going to change your view by listening to me" and
added that the mention of Balochistan was a "unilateral
reference" and "Pakistan's perception which is not shared by
us."

Former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha asked why
India's sentiment on Balochistan was not mentioned in the
joint statement in response to Gilani's contention.

Responding to this, Mukherjee told Sinha that BJP itself
had stated in a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil that it
was a "unilateral reference".

"You yourself are admitting by using the epithet
'unilateral mentioning' that we are not a party to it. But you
could have stated that our position should have been
mentioned. That is not the intention (of yours)," he said.

Referring to the Indian consulates in Afghanistan which
have been accused by Pakistan of causing trouble in
Balochistan, he said these missions were only engaged in
helping Afghan people. In this regard, he appreciated the
decision of previous NDA government to open these. PTI ARC
DdC
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