India has rejected Pakistan's claim that it was in agreement with it that Home Secretary G K Pillai's remarks regarding Inter State Intelligence role in Mumbai attacks were uncalled for.
"At no point during the talks, by no means the External Affairs Minister (S M Krishna) expressed agreement with Foreign Minister (Shah Mahmood) Qureshi's opinion," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.
She was replying to a question about Qureshi's claim at the press conference on Thursday that Pillai's remarks had vitiated atmosphere and during the talks "both of us were of the opinion that it was uncalled for".
Asked why Krishna did not rebut Qureshi's claim at the press conference, Rao said there were a "huge number" of journalists and in the "pell-mell of to-and-fro queries", it "may have just happened that the EAM did not react".
Rao, while talking TV channels, said Krishna gave "absolutely" no indication that he had the same opinion as Qureshi on Pillai.
She defended Pillai's remarks, saying he was "perfectly within his rights" to state the Indian position.
Pillai had said that ISI controlled the Mumbai attacks from "beginning to end".
On talks between Krishna and Qureshi, Rao said Pakistan wanted to restore the entire spectrum of issues.
"We are not against resumption of dialogue. We have never said that. We want a serious dialogue, we want a sustained dialogue, we want to have a meaningful dialogue but we have to start in a graduated way," she said.
On Qureshi's remarks about Indian delegations and talks made today, Rao said it came "somewhat as a surprise".
Asked whether dialogue process will be hampered due to political pressure here, the Foreign Secretary said she was definitely of the view that the dialogue process must go on.
"By no means would I define yesterday's meeting as having ended in any collapse or any conclusion that would suggest that there is nothing to look forward," she said.
"There was a hiatus in expectations," she said noting that Pakistan had certain ideas of re-engagement that were not acceptable to India.
Rao said it was essential for both the countries to be "very dispassionate about the exercise itself because there was no real dialogue since the Mumbai attacks.
"We have just begun and it is really very essential that we must understand that this is not going to be easy. There are many obstacles along the course," she said.
During the talks, she said, India did talk of the specifics.
"We had a very clear set of do-ables that we thought we might discuss with the Pakistanis and reach an agreement," she said.
She said on certain issues, the two sides were in agreement and went on to add that the two sides had a "serious" discussion and "it was by no means a futile exercise".
India, she said, has "very real core concerns" on terrorism. She said disclosures of the ISI's involvement was nothing new to India.
Rao said the tone and tenor of certain statements made by Qureshi had not contributed in creating a conducive atmoshpere and could have been avoided.
The Indian side, she said, had hoped for a "more positive outcome".
