06-13-2006, 07:41 AM
Yashwant Sinha meets Mahmud Kasuri
Nirupama Subramanian
``The Pakistan Foreign Minister said he would not know who to talk to in Delhi"
# Says Islamabad is concerned by the issue
# Reiterates BJP's commitment to peace process
ISLAMABAD: "Practical problems" could arise in bilateral relations between India and Pakistan for want of a Cabinet Minister of External Affairs, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha said on Thursday.
The former External Affairs Minister made the remark soon after his meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, and said the issue was beginning to concern Islamabad.
A review of the third round of the composite dialogue process, which has nearly ended, is due soon and a decision needs to be taken about dates for starting the fourth round. "But Mr. Kasuri said he would not know who to talk to in Delhi," Mr. Sinha said.
He said the BJP had been demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of K. Natwar Singh following the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.
At his meeting with Mr. Kasuri, Mr. Sinha said he reiterated his party's commitment to the peace process "in the context of the January 2004" agreement between Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was then Prime Minister, and President Pervez Musharraf. "<span style='color:red'>That means the violence in Jammu and Kashmir must stop," Mr Sinha said.
"We cannot have blasts in Srinagar when the Prime Minister is to go there for a round table conference, we cannot have killings in Doda on a communal basis and still expect everything to be normal," he said.</span>
Pakistan maintains it has nothing to do with these incidents and that it is doing everything to prevent violence, but India must see "concrete evidence" of that, he said.
Mr. Sinha said the statement by BJP president Rajnath Singh asking for Pakistan to be declared a "terorrist state" had to be seen in the context of the Doda incident. While assuring Mr. Kasuri of the BJP's support to the peace process, Mr. Sinha said he also made clear that any solution "that will be finally arrived at should have bipartisan consensus".
Counterproductive
He said although Pakistan complained that the process was progressing far too slowly, it would be "counterproductive" to set a deadline for arriving at solutions. "What if we cross the deadline? What is the option to talking? If you are committed to talks, what is the use of a deadline?" he asked.
The former minister is here at the invitation of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency. He addressed Pakistani parliamentarians on the budget process in the Indian Parliament.
Mr. Sinha said he met several parliamentarians from Sind who said pending the reopening of the Indian and Pakistan consulates in Karachi and Mumbai respectively, the Indian High Commission must put in place a method to collect visa applications from Karachi.
Indian officials say that at present, applications are collected by means of a drop-box system for those who cannot travel all the way to Islamabad.