The Congress on Saturday said there is “no purpose” of going ahead with the NSA-level talks unless there are tangible deliverables. With Pakistan shifting focus from terror to Kashmir through Hurriyat Conference, AICC Spokesman Anand Sharma charged Pakistan with using the build up to NSA level talks for propaganda purposes against India’s interests.
“We would advise the government that unless there are firm assurances of tangible deliverables and outcome, there is no purpose in going ahead with the talks,” AICC spokesman Anand Sharma said at AICC briefing. He said that India should have seen through the Pakistani designs and wondered as to why New Delhi announced the dates of talks in a one way gesture, without Islamabad confirming it.
Noting that “extraneous” issues are being used to throw spanner in the process of talks, he said that the exercise is being exploited by those who influence border issues in Pakistan against India. He warned the Government against giving “a larger than life profile to Hurriyat”, which he insisted has “no locus standi”.
“It (Hurriyat) does not represent people of J&K and is unrepresentative and unrepresentable,” he said. “We are concerned and we are definitely saddened and embarrassed by these developments.... We request the Government that till the time you are fully satisfied with what will be the outcome of talks, till then you leave this process,” he said.
Sharma said Pakistan had also offered NSA-level talks when Congress-led UPA was in power and the then government not agreed. “It had told Pakistan that until the trial in Mumbai terror attack case comes to conclusion, India cannot accept NSA level talks,” he said.
Former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also slammed the Government for running a policy “based on two to three people who think they will pull out a rabbit out of hat”.
Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Amarinder Singh supported Government’s objection to Pakistan inviting Hurriyat leaders ahead of the NSA-level talks between the two countries. Replying to a question on the talks during a rally in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, Singh made it clear that “inviting Hurriyat leaders was wrong.”