'PM should take Nation into confidence'

NAGPUR, JULY 22. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, should take the Nation into confidence over the issues that figured during the Agra summit, the former Prime Minister, Mr. V.P. Singh, told reporters today.

``A Nation cannot be kept in the dark. Mr. Vajpayee should tell the Members of Parliament and the media what has been discussed, points of agreements and disagreements. The same thing has been done by the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on his return to Islamabad.''

There should have been some structured or unstructured agenda for the summit, he said. On Mr. Vajpayee's proposed visit to Pakistan, Mr. Singh said: ``Progress should be formulated before going to Islamabad. Only then some fruitful dialogues can be expected.''

``The Agra summit has exposed the limitations and compulsions of both the leaderships on certain issues,'' he said adding Mr. Vajpayee needs to consider political confidence building measures.

No homework had been done by the leadership and the media management was poor. There was no point in blaming the media, he added. ``We had enough time and certain points could have been discussed with Cabinet colleagues and should have waited for some time for finalising the strategy.''

On whether the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, and some others were allegedly responsible for the inconclusive talks, Mr. Singh said,``the differences, if any, could have been resolved earlier''. ``We should draw lessons from Agra and there is reasonable opening,'' he added.

Mr. Singh was in favour of granting greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir as demanded by the State Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq bdullah, as a political package but said that ``the present Government has no consistency in its policy''.

``During elections, the NDA was in favour of removing Article 370, later they invited the Hurriyat on one hand, Gen. Musharraf on the other for talks. Gen. Musharraf should have been invited when the ceasefire was extended, that was an opportune time,'' he said.

``While granting greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, at the same time, India should have demanded the same autonomy to Pakistan occupied Kashmir from Pakistan.''

- PTI

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