Date:23/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052380001600.htm

National

BJP: why didn’t Pranab rebuff Qureshi?

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has criticised External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee for “not responding, then and there, to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s reference to the United Nations resolution on Kashmir.”

The U.N. resolution did not figure in the Shimla Accord, it was not mentioned in the Lahore Declaration, nor did it figure in the 2004 joint statement in which Pakistan agreed not to allow territory under its control to be used for launching terrorist activity against India, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Thursday.

“We are concerned about Mr. Mukherjee’s complete silence. He should have rejected and contradicted Mr. Qureshi then and there.”