Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha speaks to NDTV
Senior BJP leader and foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Yashwant Sinha, today criticised the National Security Adviser-level talks with Pakistan by saying 'it will be a dialogue of the deaf.' The talks are scheduled for Sunday.
"These talks will be the dialogue of the deaf, there will be no outcome and we will be back where we are..." Mr Sinha, 82, told NDTV.
Mr Sinha said that during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's term as PM, the government had evolved a stand that terror and talks cannot go together. "Therefore, in the 10 year rule of UPA we criticised Manmohan Singh for departing from the BJP position."
On Sunday, Pakistan's NSA Sartaj Aziz will travel to India to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval. The talks agreed between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan in their meeting in Ufa in Russia are supposed to focus on terror and are seen as a first step towards the two countries moving towards a possible road map for peace.
But since their talks, the violence at the border has only escalated. Within a short span of time, Pakistan has indulged in 45 odd ceasefire violations. There have also been two major terror attacks in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
Calling the timing of the talks most unsuitable, Mr Sinha said, "Pakistan has its script ready. It denied Kasab was a Pakistan national till substantial evidence was dumped at its door. It's denying that the terrorist nabbed in Udhampur is its citizen. When India asked for Hafiz Saeed to be handed over it wanted Aseemanand, accused in Samjhauta blast. Pakistan has a dossier ready to counter each dossier India hands over."
Mr Sinha challenged the logic of the talks by citing a letter written in 2013 to the then PM Dr Manmohan Singh in which Mr Doval was a co-signatory asking the government to cancel the dialogue process.