How can govt let Sharif's advisor meet Kashmiri separatists: BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that the United Progressive Alliance government had committed a ‘diplomatic blunder’ by allowing Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's advisor Sartaj Aziz to meet Kashmiri separatists on Indian soil and demanded that the talks be stopped. 

"After making a failed attempt to buy peace with Pakistan at New York, the UPA government has now allowed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's advisor Sartaj Aziz to meet and hold talks with Kashmiri separatist leaders in New Delhi," he said in a statement.

"Why Aziz is given this opportunity when Pakistan is committing acts of aggression in the state of Jammu and Kashmir?" Singh asked and added that this is something blatantly against the established international diplomatic norms.

"By allowing Sartaj Aziz to hold talks with Kashmiri separatists, the UPA government has committed another diplomatic blunder with serious costs to national security and national interest," the BJP President said.

BJP demands that Aziz should be stopped from holding talks with Kashmiri separatists on Indian soil, he said, noting that Kashmir issue is India's internal matter and it should be resolved through a home grown solution.

Singh said that Pakistan has been trying hard to internationalise the Kashmir issue for many years and added that Kashmir issue was recently raised once again at the UN General Assembly meeting this year by Pakistan.

Expressing concern "over the manner" in which the UPA government is operating its Pakistan policy, the BJP chief said that while India has been facing a series of ceasefire violations from Pakistan, the government's response towards such acts of aggression has been "submissive".

In the absence of a long-term strategic thinking and direction, the UPA government's Pakistan policy has been driven by adhocism, Singh said.