Headlines
Hurriyat leaders, V.K. Singh at Pakistan Day, India rules out third party in talks
New Delhi, March 23
Leaders of the Hurriyat
Conference and other separatist outfits as well as Minister of State for
External Affairs Gen. (retd) V.K. Singh attended the Pakistan Day
function here on Monday, even as India made it clear that there was no
place for any third party while dealing with Kashmir and other issues
with Islamabad.
There was controversy earlier in the day over
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit's remarks that India was not
against his invitation to separatist leaders. However, the Indian
government said it prefers to speak for itself.
The function,
held under the glare of the media at the Pakistan High Commission here,
was also attended by Congress leader and former union minister Mani
Shankar Aiyar.
Former Indian Army chief V.K. Singh, who was wearing a green jacket, spent about 10 minutes at the function and sat with Basit.
Also
present were leaders of two factions of Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali
Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
leader Yasin Malik.
There was more than usual media interest in
this year's function as the Narendra Modi government had, in August last
year, called off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan after the
country's envoy met Kashmiri separatist leaders, ignoring India's
request not to do so.
However, there has since been resumed
official-level engagement between the two countries, with Foreign
Secretary S. Jaishankar visiting Pakistan earlier this month as part of
the SAARC yatra.
The Pakistani envoy, in his brief speech, introduced V.K. Singh as the "chief guest".
"We owe to our future generations to give them a peaceful atmosphere and not conflict," Basit later told IANS.
Basit had on Sunday met Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
The
envoy had earlier in the month met Geelani and updated him about the
talks between Jaishankar and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad
Chaudhry in Islamabad.
As Basit apparently suggested on Monday
that India had no objection to his meetings with Hurriyat leaders, the
Indian government made it clear that there was no place for any third
party while dealing with issues with Islamabad.
External affairs
ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the only way forward
vis-a-vis Pakistan was a peaceful bilateral dialogue.
He said there should be no scope of misunderstanding about India's stance on resolving outstanding issues with Pakistan.
"Having
repeated it on so many occasions, there should be no scope for
misunderstanding or misrepresenting India's position on the role of the
so-called Hurriyat," Akbaruddin said.
He said there were only two parties on India-Pakistan issues and there was no place for a third party.
"The
only way forward to proceed on all outstanding issues is a peaceful
bilateral dialogue within the framework of Simla Agreement and Lahore
Declaration," he said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the media that Pakistan can call whoever it wants on its national day.
Coming out of the function, Geelani talked about "azadi" and "state terrorism" in Jammu and Kashmir.
He also emphasised on five conditions set by his group in 2010 for any result-oriented talks with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.
Geelani
said the Indian government should accept Kashmir as disputed territory,
withdraw its forces and "black laws", punish those involved in the
killing of 128 people in 2010, and release of political prisoners.
Aiyar
told the media later that India and Pakistan should show maturity for
"uninterrupted dialogue", and Kashmiri separatist leaders had been
attending the Pakistan Day function for the past several years.
The
People's Democratic Party, which is now Bharatiya Janata Party's
partner in the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir, is also in favour
of dialogue with Pakistan.
In a series of tweets late on Monday evening, V.K. Singh posted a few of his views under the hashtags 'duty' and 'disgust'.
Under
'Duty', he wrote "A task or action that a person is bound to perform
for moral or legal reasons", "The force that binds one morally or
legally to one's obligations", and "A job or service allocated".
Under 'Disgust', he posted "To sicken or fill with loathing", and "To offend the moral sense, principles, or taste of".
As
some sections of the media speculated that these tweets were a kind of
rebellion by the minister who was asked by the government to attend the
event, V.K. Singh again posted: "'Disgust'ed to see how certain sections
of the media are twisting this issue."