Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
Hurriyat kettle on boil, Govt, NDA to stay away

Hurriyat kettle on boil, Govt, NDA to stay away

Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 12, 2001

Neither the government, nor the NDA will sip tea at the Pakistan high commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi's party in honour of President Pervez Musharraf. It was decided today to boycott the tea party in protest against the exclusion of all from Jammu and Kashmir, with the sole exception being the Hurriyat Conference.

In view of this decision, the main opposition party, the Congress, too is reconsidering whether it should accept Qazi's hospitality or not. Said senior party leader K Natwar Singh: "We will reconsider it if the government is not going." At a meeting of the NDA this evening, external affair minister Jaswant Singh announced that no minister from lice government would be attending the party and it would be left to a protocol officer to complete the formality.

Singh also told the meeting that Jinnah House in Mumbai would not be handed over to the Pakistan government for converting it into the Pakistan consulate.

Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer and Joint Secretary Vivek Katju (Pakistan), who have also been invited - apart from former prime ministers and former high commissioners - are also staying away. While Chandra Shekhar and H. D. Deve Gowda have decided not to attend, I. K. Gujral has "accepted the invitation as of now." The CPI, however, said there had been no change "as of today" in their decision to attend the party. "We are not aware who all have been invited or excluded. But even if the Hurriyat alone has been invited from Kashmir, it doesn't mean that we agree with Pakistan's view," CPI leader D. Raja said.

Referring to the talks, Jaswant Singh said he as both foreign minister and defence minister, home minister L.K. Advani, finance minister Yashwant Sinha and commerce minister Murasoli Maran would be in the Vajpayee-led delegation which will have talks with Musharraf and his team.

NDA convenor George Fernandes, when asked who the ministers would talk to as Musharraf had not included their counterparts in his delegation, said they would advise Vajpayee whenever necessary during the talks.

The unanimous view among the NDA partners, with the sole exception of Lok Jan Shakti leader Ram Vilas Paswan, was that since neither the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir nor any elected representative or leaders of political parties from the state had been invited, the tea party should be boycotted.

"By inviting only the Hurriyat, Pakistan wants to send the message that Hurriyat is the sole representative of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. There is a method in this which is not acceptable to us," Fernandes told reporters.

He however added "it is not a boycott but an expression of our displeasure" over the Hurriyat being given primacy. Asked if this would have any adverse impact on the dialogue between India and Pakistan, he said: "There isn't anything in this which should impinge on the success of Musharraf's visit."

It is learnt that the entire list of invitees for the party is with the government and on that basis the decision to stay away had been taken.

In fact, Fernandes himself had earlier stated publicly that the tea party should not be made an issue but he reversed his stand today. "Since the land on which embassies and high commissions are located is considered to be their respective countries' territory, I had said that who they invite is their business. But when it turned out that barring the Hurriyat nobody had been invited, we decided against accepting the invitation," he told reporters.

Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav cautioned the meeting that the Hurriyat issue should be handled carefully but agreed with the dominant view that the NDA constituents should stay away from the party.
 


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements