Search the Internet          Tips  Indo-Pak Summit

Govt didn't prepare for the summit: V P Singh

Resenting that the Agra summit ended inconclusively, former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh on Thursday accused the government of "not doing any groundwork" for the talks before inviting President Pervez Musharraf and described this as the biggest "diplomatic faux pas".

"We feel let down. The government was not prepared for the summit. No one has ever made such a faux pas before," he told reporters.

Pointing out that the opposition parties had welcomed the talks, he said, "Now it looks like the government hurried with the summit just to cover up for the failure of the ceasefire initiative."

Alleging that the government did not have a clear-cut policy on Kashmir, he said high-level meetings were held only after adequate groundwork was done in advance.

"A meeting on such a serious issue was held in a very casual way," he said.

To a question on whether the prime minister should accept Musharraf's invitation to Pakistan, Singh said, "Vajpayee should take lessons from the Agra summit. I am not against dialogues, but preparatory work must be done."

Asked if he felt the hawks in the Bharatiya Janata Party had interfered in the Indo-Pak talks, he said, "A prime minister has to be 100 per cent a prime minister. He cannot be 99.9 per cent."

There is always pressure in such things "but it is for tough men to take decisions".

PTI

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report