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Indo-Pak talks will continue, assures Fernandes

Union Defence Minister George Fernandes Wednesday said the high level talks between India and Pakistan would continue despite unprovoked firings from across the border and the unsuccessful attempts on Siachen.

Ultimately the outstanding issues have to be settled through negotiations, he said in Bhopal.

Asked how the incidents would affect the talks, Fernandes' answer was that during the Vietnam war, the representatives of the United States and Vietnam used to meet every Wednesday.

Tuesday's attempt on Siachen, the defence minister continued, indicated that Pakistan was desperate.

Fernandes parried a volley of questions about the controversy over the education policy. That, he said, wasn't a concern of his ministry.

Asked about the proposal to delete Articles 29 and 30 (pertaining to rights to the minorities to set up educational institutions) from the Constitution, he said the government was not considering it.

Regarding the assembly elections in four states, the Samata Party leader said his outfit was holding talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party for electoral alliance in Delhi and Rajasthan. He was hopeful that a Samata-BJP alliance would be worked out in Madhya Pradesh. If that did not happen, his party would still fight the elections there.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said the government would firmly deal with the threat posed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.

''I compliment the police and the security forces for their courage and determination in countering the ISI threat,'' he said in New Delhi, inaugurating the All India Police Radio Officers conference.

He said India's security environment was changing rapidly with new and sophisticated challenges to internal security emerging. These required a highly professional response, for which advanced telecommunication system was vital.

He said there was a greater need to pay attention to training communication officers.

The home minister said the information technology system was changing dramatically; global mobile technology has become a reality. "The government will give priority to computerisation of police stations, conversion of data to the electronic format and creation of Internet connections,'' he said.

UNI

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