The Hindu : Govt. must be cautious in dealing with Pak.: Azad

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Sunday, May 04, 2003

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Govt. must be cautious in dealing with Pak.: Azad

By Our Staff Reporter

Reasi May 3. Calling for extreme caution in the country's policy towards Pakistan, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief, Ghulam Nabi Azad, today said the Central Government should do the requisite homework before taking any fresh initiative as any failure would not be tolerated by the people of the country.

Addressing a rally at the parade ground of Reasi town in Jammu division, Mr. Azad, in the absence of the party president, Sonia Gandhi, who had to cancel her visit due to bad weather, detailed the Congress' reaction to the Prime Minister's statement in the Rajya Sabha yesterday. "We support the initiative of the Prime Minister which has broken the ice in the relationship between the two countries. But we ask the Centre to be cautious."

The Government's last two attempts to better relations with Pakistan had failed and this was why the Congress was urging a cautious approach, he said.

Mr. Azad said, "on one occasion the Prime Minister took India-Pakistan relations to a new pitch and undertook the famous Lahore bus yatra. But soon, Pakistani troops trespassed into Indian territory leading to the infamous Kargil conflict. Later, the Prime Minister again tried to mend relations with Pakistan and invited its President, Pervez Musharraf to Agra but the latter abused India in front of the whole world."

Pointing out that there was a need for learning from the past, the Congress leader said the Government should do its required homework on the issue.

"The main Opposition party thinks that before any summit between the leaders of the two countries there is a need for a comprehensive dialogue by exploring diplomatic channels. In short, the need is for a bottom to top approach rather than vice-versa. First, the officials of the two countries should reach a consensus on the points of dispute and then the two leaderships can sit and ratify the decisions."

Warning the National Democratic Alliance that the third failure would not be forgiven by the country, Mr. Azad said, "any invitation extended to the Prime Minister of Pakistan or accepting any invitation from Pakistan should only follow after a detailed discussion by the lower tiers at the diplomatic channels."

Turning to the State's politics, the Congress leader spoke about the achievements of the PDP-Congress Government in the last six months.

He said, "we are yet to achieve our foremost goal of achieving peace and the efforts in this direction will continue. Every step of the coalition Government will be towards reaching the ultimate goal of bringing peace to the State."

The process of empowering the State's different regions had begun beginning with the Leh Autonomous Hill Development Council, he said adding that soon a similar council would be formed in Kargil.

Also, the various recommendations of the Wazir Commission would be implemented.

Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mangat Ram Sharma, stressed the need for the coalition partners maintaining harmony as they had done in the last six months.

He said, "no power on earth can prevent us from taking the State out of this morass. It will soon join other States of the country on the path to prosperity. For the first time, the principle of equality has been established between the three regions of the State."

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