Unprepared govt played into Pakistani hands on NSA talks issue: Congress

The Congress on Sunday charged the National Democratic Alliance government with having played into the hands of Pakistan on the National Security Advisor-level talks issue and giving the neighbouring country an opportunity to wriggle out of a dialogue on terror.

“Unfortunately, the Government of India has played into its (Pakistan’s) hands by being imprecise, by being unprepared, by lacking focus, by being ad hoc, by not doing sufficient hard-nosed groundwork, good old-fashioned diplomacy and preparation.

“We are very sad that all the gains of the last 10-odd years on Indo-Pak settlement of at least some issues, are given a setback by such aborted talks. No such opportunity should have been given to Pakistan to wriggle out of as serious an issue as terror,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

He said with people scoring debating points across the border after NSA-level talks were aborted by Pakistan on Sunday night, it was not a good sight for the solidity of Indian foreign policy, which is based on coherence, continuity and consistency.

“I think the government needs to get its house in order. It needs to make sure that multiple agencies, which suddenly appear to have started making Indian foreign policy, either the multiplicity is eliminated or complete unity and coherence are introduced in all those multiple agencies to speak through one agency and in one voice,” he said.

He lamented that the vicissitudes of Indian domestic policy should not have allowed to make a mockery of India’s status in the world due to its proud democratic status and its humongous economic power.

“We deprecate the ham-handed manner in which several aspects which I have elaborated have been handled by the government,” Singhvi said.

Attacking Pakistan, he said it is clear and certain that it wants to run away from all issues relating to terrorism as it does not want any discussion on any issue or exchange of information, particularly on those serious matters on which it can be cornered.

He said it is also certain that Pakistan is again trying to divert, bring new issues as it has been doing so in the past and it has done so now too.

“Certainly, Pakistan’s goal is very clear. We condemn it,” the Congress leader said, adding that Pakistan is clearly using the refuge of technicalities to avoid talk on terror.

Singhvi also criticised Pakistan for using certain words in its statement on Saturday night which were not part of international diplomacy or foreign policy.

“The use of language by Pakistan in yesterday’s statement, words like ‘fake’ and ‘concocted’, I don’t feel anyone has seen the use of such words in international diplomacy. These are not words in diplomacy, foreign policy or international diplomacy,” he said.

He said it was “very unfortunate” that the Indian government due to less preparation and research and without solid plans, allowed Pakistan’s plot to succeed.

“They should have been alert on this and should have had prior planning on Pakistan’s possible response. Therefore, such a plan should have been put in place so that Pakistan could not have said no to talks on terror,” he said.