Indo-Pak joint statement dictated by US: BJP

Bangalore: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused the Government of agreeing to the India-Pakistan joint statement under international pressure, especially from the US.

"We see a strong possibility of international pressure, particularly from the US, behind the joint statement, which de-links talks between India and Pakistan from terror and unilaterally mentions Balochistan," said BJP president Rajnath Singh in Bangalore.

The joint statement was issued after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani July 16 on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Advising the Government to stop shifting the goalposts, Singh said the Prime Minister owed it to the nation to explain how this came about and under what pressure.

Expressing the party's dissatisfaction over the Government's alleged flip-flop on its Pakistan policy, Singh sought a contingency plan to undo the damage done to the fundamentals of India's diplomacy and foreign policy.

"The Sharm el-Sheikh fiasco is an outcome of the government's desperation as if it is under some obligation to make peace with Pakistan even if there is no reciprocating gesture from across the border," Singh said.

Terming the joint statement as an unfortunate and shameful document of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's "failure" on issues pertaining to diplomacy, statesmanship and national interest, Singh said by de-linking talks from terror and allowing Pakistan to accuse India of interference in Balochistan, the government has dealt a severe blow to the basic tenets of foreign policy.

"It is high time the government admitted that it had committed a Himalayan blunder at Sharm el-Sheikh and rectify the mistakes by introducing diplomatic policies based on national consensus and national interest," Singh asserted.

Terming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement on the issue in parliament Wednesday as inadequate and vague, the BJP president said that even the clarifications failed to address the concerns expressed by the BJP and other opposition parties.

"It is shocking to see the government deviating from the country's stated position, which maintained from day one that Pakistan's official agencies aided terrorists involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks," Rajnath Singh noted.

The BJP president is in Karnataka on a two-day visit to preside over the party's state unit executive committee meeting and review the performance of the first BJP government in the state.