New Delhi: A day after the NAM summit ended, the government's facing a lot of heat over the Indo-Pak joint statement sealed in Egypt.
The BJP walked out of the House saying India had compromised a bit too much and had effectively sold out to Pakistani interests.
"What made you change your stand," said L K Advani, Leader of the Opposition.
The BJP walking out, upset with the PM's statement on Indo-Pak talks in Egypt.
"The Centre of controversy is the line in the joint statement that leaves room for interpretation," said Arun Jaitley, leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha.
The controversial portion says:
"Action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed."
India says this actually means that Pakistan should not link India's concerns on terrorism to the resumption of dialogue.
But Pakistan claims that the dialogue will no longer be held hostage to individual incidents. On Friday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament that there was no shift in India's position.
But even the Left parties normally supportive of the peace process have asked for more assurances.
And so what could have been a possible new beginning has been drowned by domestic controversy, shrinking the space the government will have for maneuverability on Pakistan.