The Bhartiya Janata Party on Tuesday protested at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging Saudi Arabia to persuade Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, dubbing it as a major departure in foreign policy tenet of never involving third parties in the bilateral issues.
"The PM asking Saudi Arabia to persuade Pakistan is nothing but the beginning of the third party intervention and this proves that (Minister of State for External Affairs) Shashi Tharoor's remarks indicating Saudi role were not off the cuff," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told mediapersons in New Delhi.
Asserting that Tharoor's remarks even before talks with Saudi Arabia reflected the government mindset on the issue, he reminded Dr Singh of the Shimla agreement between India and Pakistan to sort out all issues bilaterally, making it clear that there would not be any place for a third party mediation.
Javadekar said the floor leaders of the National Democratic Alliance will be meeting on Wednesday to decide their strategy in Parliament on the petroleum price hike, and will also discuss PM's bid to involve Saudi Arabia in sorting out issues with Pakistan.
Javadekar said the PM's stance would open up a Pandora's Box and help Islamabad justify its repeated stress on involving the United Nations and other countries in settling the Kashmir dispute.
