Date:20/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/20/stories/2003042002510900.htm

National

Opening of a new gate: Gowda

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM APRIL 19. The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, has welcomed the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's move to offer a "hand of friendship" to Pakistan.

Describing it as "opening of a new gate'' towards resolving the Kashmir problem through peaceful and bilateral means, Mr. Gowda said on Saturday that it was time the Prime Minister took the people of Kashmir, including the Hurriyat Conference and "domestic'' militant groups (not terrorist groups sponsored from across the borders) into confidence.

However, Mr. Gowda, who was on his way to Jamkhandi in Bijapur district, told presspersons that Mr. Vajpayee's statement in Srinagar on Friday showed his "belated realisation'' with the Iraq war serving as "an eye opener.''

It took nearly five years for Mr. Vajpayee as Prime Minister to realise that a peaceful solution to Kashmir problem was possible only through negotiations, Mr. Gowda said. "The Prime Minister should not be bogged down by the parochial views of the BJP and RSS."

Mr. Gowda said the Prime Minister should not repeat the adhoc decisions taken in the past which complicated national and international issues. Mr. Vajpayee had said in a letter to the then United States President, Bill Clinton, that the Pokhran-II nuclear tests was inevitable to defend the nation from its enemies.