There was no draft agreement, says PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 22. Pakistan's refusal at the Agra summit to allow any reference to India's key concern on cross-border terrorism in Kashmir was a major reason for the breakdown of the talks, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today making his first public comments on the reasons why the summit failed to produce a joint declaration or statement.

In fact, he listed several areas where the views of India and Pakistan remained significantly different and no compromise was possible. And he was not willing to say when he was likely to go to Islamabad having accepted an invitation from the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

He made it clear that at no point were the two leaders - Gen. Musharraf and himself - ``ready to sign'' any agreement for ``no draft came before us,'' it was only ``discussed at the delegation level.'' Mr. Vajpayee thus contradicted Gen. Musharraf's claim that twice the two leaders had come close to signing a joint declaration.

On the sidelines of the ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan where Mr. Ajit Singh, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader, took the oath as Cabinet Minister, Mr. Vajpayee mentioned that ``another factor'' was Pakistan's insistence that there could be no normalisation of bilateral relations until the Kashmir issue was resolved. That view was not in keeping with the Indian stance.

Talking to reporters, the Prime Minister listed the areas where there were serious and irreconcilable differences in the viewpoints of the two countries. Gen. Musharraf had insisted on the centrality of the Kashmir issue and he had refused to accommodate India's major concern on cross-border terrorism while insisting on describing this as a ``freedom struggle''.

The Prime Minister may have chosen to respond to questions from reporters as there has been criticism that he has remained silent - he earlier said he would speak in Parliament first - even as Gen. Musharraf has gone public through his press conference in Islamabad on July 20. The ruling parties as well as the Opposition have said Pakistan was able to put its point of view across strongly through the media while India was well behind in this.

Mr. Vajpayee today said ``the talks broke down because of Pakistan's adamant attitude against'' not making any reference to ``cross-border terrorism'' and ``repeatedly'' referring to terrorist incidents as part of the ``freedom struggle'' in Kashmir. General Musharraf had also emphasised that there could be no movement forward in the bilateral relations between the two countries ``till the Kashmir issue is resolved.'

Emphasising that all decisions were taken ``collectively'', he insisted that shortcomings, if any, were his as ``leader of the Council of Ministers''. The decisions were unanimous and were taken after members freely placed their views. He rejected the suggestion that a section of the Bharatiya Janata Party was blaming the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh. ``This was wrong'' he added.

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