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CPI-M blames Swaraj's faux pas for breakdown

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said that the faux pas by the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj provided an opportunity to the Pakistani President to hold a press conference before the third round of talks.

"You gave them an opportunity on platter and they exploited it fully to their advantage," Yechuri said on Tuesday afternoon.

He was answering questions from mediapersons who asked him to why General Pervez Musharraf addressed the editors and senior journalists before the third round of talks with Vajpayee on July 16.

Party General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, however, blamed Pakistan for the failure of the talks on the issue of cross-border terrorism.

"Perhaps you are not aware that Pakistan refused to accept that what was going on in Kashmir was terrorism. It is sad to note that General Musharraf sought to compare the terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir with the freedom struggle of the Palestine," said Surjeet.

He refused to term the talks as failure. "If the talks did not succeed they were also not a failure. The good part is that the two leaders have agreed to meet again. We expect two of them to use every opportunity to meet at various international fora and discuss the Indo-Pakistan relations," he said.

He, however, said that the Vajpayee government did not make sufficient preparations for the talks.

Surjeet agreed that Kashmir is an issue and needs to be discussed. "In fact the General went to the extent that he would accept the mention that Kashmir is an issue in the joint declaration instead of its known stand that Kashmir is a dispute. This was a major come down on their oft repeated position," Surjeet said.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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