Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) Taking exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani a “man of peace”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday said the meeting between the two during the SAARC conference in Maldives was “disastrous like Sharm-el-Sheikh”.

“The PM’s statement that Gilani is a man of peace is ridiculous… This meet has been disastrous like Sharm-el-Sheikh,” former external affairs minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told a TV channel.

Responding to prime minister’s remarks after a meeting with Gilani on the sidelines of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Sinha said the central issue between India and Pakistan was cross-border terrorism and there was nothing Pakistan had done to warrant the impression that they were serious about tackling the issue.

“Our prime minister had said after 26/11 that we will not rest till the perpetrators of the attack were brought to book,” Sinha said, adding that nobody other than Kasab had been brought to book in the Mumbai terror case.

He said Manmohan Singh had “erred”in describing Gilani as a man of peace and said the neighbouring country had done nothing in the 26/11 attack case.

Sinha said that the home minister, the defence minister and the army chief had talked about Pakistan’s involvement in terror acts but the prime minister seemed to be “oblivious”.

“This will not be acceptable to the people of India,” he asserted.

Sinha said that while Manmohan Singh praised Gilani, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik had spoken about the need for more evidence against Jamaat-ud-Dawa led by Hafiz Saeed, adding people knew of the involvement of Saeed and (Pakistani spy agency) ISI in terror activities through documented evidence.

On Malik’s remarks that 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab should be hanged, Sinha said the minister had also remarked that those involved in Samjhauta Express blast should also be hanged and added that Pakistan had always sought to draw parity with India on the issue of terrorism.

To a query, Sinha said trust deficit between the two countries will start shrinking only when Pakistan recognises the involvement of state actors in terrorist acts and stops talking with a forked tongue on bilateral relations.

Sinha said the whole world had been saying that the Indian embassy in Kabul had been attacked at the behest of ISI but the prime minister continued talking to Pakistan and giving it certificates.

Describing Gilani as “man of peace”, Manmohan Singh said in the Maldives that the dialogue process, which the two countries resumed early this year, had yielded positive results but stressed that more needed to be done.