After over a week of diffidence, the Congress on Monday came out openly backing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the controversial Indo-Pak joint statement in Egypt that has come under a lot of criticism.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who addressed party Members of Parliament on Thursday, backed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the joint statement signed between Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gilani and him in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday came out in support of the government on the Indo-Pak joint statement stating that the "government and party are absolutely one."
Rejecting criticism that India 'capitulated' to Pakistan, the government has said an assurance by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to go after the masterminds of Mumbai terror attacks seriously prompted the issuance of the Indo-Pak joint statement.
Two dates: July 29 and July 30, will be important dates for the government and the Congress party to clear the air about the Indo-Pakistan joint statement.
The latest stand of the Congress party, which is still not being seen as a wholehearted endorsement of the prime minister but qualified in the sense that the party will wait to hear what he has to say, was spelled out by the All India Congress Committee media chairman Janardhan Dwivedi who made a suo motto statement to the media two days before the prime minister is to speak in the House.
Under attack over the Indo-Pak joint statement, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the government has all the 'relevant answers' to the questions raised over it and that he will spell these out in Parliament on July 29.
Excerpts of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in Lok Sabha on the debate on his recent visit abroad on July 29, 2009.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Wednesday briefed Congress Members of Parliament about various aspects of the Indo-Pak joint statement issued at Sharm-el Sheikh, hours ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention on the issue in Parliament. Menon briefed a group of party MPs from both the Houses on the technical details of the statement so that they were aware of all the details of the communique before the discussion on the issue, sources said.
It was also agreed that while the anti-terrorism mechanism would meet on quarterly basis, any information which is required to be provided on priority basis would be immediately conveyed to the respective heads of the mechanism.
New Delhi underlined it is mandated to address all forms of terrorism and that there is no confusion with regard to the definition of the menace.
Dr Wahid Baloch is President of the Baloch Society of North America spoke on the recent Indo-Pak joint statement in Egypt and what it means for the Baloch fight for freedom.
Pakistani experts are disappointed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech in Parliament on the Indo-Pak joint statement, terming it as a response to the pressure exerted by Opposition parties.
The joint statement signed by him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "underlines our concerns over India's interference in Balochistan and other areas of Pakistan", Gilani told his first press conference after his return from Sharm-el Sheikh.
Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Thursday said after the Indo-Pak Joint Statement at Sharm-el Sheikh, the government may be "inclined to settle" the Kashmir issue in blatant violation of the unanimous resolution on it in Parliament in 1995.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to mention the Sharm-e-Sheikh Indo-Pak joint statement in his Independence Day address."Balochistan was mentioned in the joint statement in a manner as if India is also using terrorism to create problems for Pakistan. The country hoped the prime minister would clarify on it in his address," he said.
Allaying fears of US openly accessing military sites and equipment under the bilateral End-User arrangements, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the pact "does not compromise" India's sovereignty, but provided "an element of predictability" through options.
Lauding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "statesmanship" and his "bold vision of peace and prosperity," Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said dialogue was the only way forward for peace in South Asia. Responding to Singh's statement in the Lok Sabha on the Indo-Pak joint statement of Egypt, Gilani reciprocated the "sentiments for peace" expressed by him and said terrorism was a common threat to the two countries.
The discussion on the joint statement would start after a special discussion on the issue of price rise of essential commodities, an issue that led to protests from several opposition parties in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday.
The government has suddenly agreed to allow a discussion under Rule 193 on price rise after the Left leaders raised the issue claiming that the matter was urgent and could not wait. So the government was quick to respond and now according to the schedule, the price rise discussion would take place first followed by the discussion on 'issues arising out of the prime minister's foreign visits'.
Faced with strident attack from opposition over the Indo-Pak joint statement, government on Friday said progress in dialogue with Pakistan is not possible in an atmosphere vitiated by violence or the threat to use violence and claimed this was encapsulated in the document.
Expressing his dissatisfaction over Dr Singh's reply on the discussion over the Indo-Pak Joint Statement, former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha told rediff.com the facts given by the prime minister in the Lok Sabha are at variance with what happened at Sharm-El-Sheikh.
Intervening in the debate on the Indo-Pak Joint Statement in Lok Sabha, the prime minister said, "It is in India's interest that Pakistan has a stable government. However, relations with Pakistan will not improve until Islamabad does not follow its commitment to fight terror in letter and spirit."
Home Minister P Chidambaram has categorically stated that India has nothing to do with Balochistan. He also made it clear that the Congress will rally behind the government over the Indo-Pak joint statement when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks in Parliament next week. "We are not involved in Balochistan. We have nothing to do with the internal problem of Pakistan. In fact, a Baloch leader has said that he gets no support from India," he said.
General Singh said the army was ready for any exigency anywhere in the country.
Nearly three weeks after the Indo-Pak joint statement in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Pakistan today insisted that there was no change in its foreign policy and raked up its demand for an "independent Kashmir" for "long-lasting" peace in South Asia.
India should be wary of Pakistan, Yashwant Sinha, senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, tells Aasha Khosa.
"We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing," Obama said after his meeting with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led opposition walked out of the Lok Sabha on Thursday afternoon, specifically protesting on the issue of Balochistan and the delinking of terror from the composite dialogue process.
He then went on to say that, however, he won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for any of his efforts.
During the meeting, India is likely to raise the issue of the recent Hyderabad blasts with Pakistan.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar also talked about the China-Pakistan economic corridor in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, asserting that India is 'resolutely opposed' to any actions by other countries to change the status quo in the region.
It said it looked forward to the consolidation of the ties through the ongoing composite dialogue 'in an atmosphere free from the menace of terrorism and violence'.
The dialogue will address all bilateral issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.
The cascade of cordiality on both sides after the Modi-Sharif handshake in Paris was preceded by much planning and even goading from UK, US and Germany.
The two sides, sources said, also agreed to stop ceasefire violations along the International Border "through enhanced communication via multiple modes at all possible levels".
Reddy alleged that contracts worth thousands of crores were awarded to people close to Modi, who then purchased Rafale aircraft.
India's unease over the Sino-US joint statement on Indo-Pak relations may indicate a "sense of loss" in New Delhi at the growing ties between China and America, Chinese scholars said on Friday. While justifying the controversial Sino-US statement that pledged support for improvement in Indo-Pak ties, they said it is in China's interests to have an "orderly neighbourly environment."
The criticism of the Indo-Pakistan joint statement is largely misdirected and based on the misperception that the composite dialogue has already been resumed and will continue full tilt no matter what Pakistan does. In fact what Dr Singh and Gilani agreed to was much more limited and laced with caution.
