Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said India was outraged by the killing of two of its soldiers on the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistan must show, through actions, that it wants good relations with its neighbour.
“Pakistan committed an inhuman act on the LoC on January 8. The incident has cast a negative impact on our ties. We will take steps with care and due consideration,” Dr Singh said in his address at the All India Congress Committee meeting in Jaipur.
“We want friendship with Pakistan. But they should also make efforts in this regard. It is not possible only with our efforts,” he said.
The tension de-escalated only last week after a telephonic conversation of the directors general of military operations of both countries. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar too offered foreign minister-level talks to resolve the situation.
Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid asserting that the government would not be influenced by “jingoistic conversations” in sections of the media, said on Sunday peace process with Pakistan was back on track “considerably” but made it clear that “atmospherics” have to be right to move forward.
Khurshid, while underlying that it is sensible not to hasten and rush into things, also denied that the government has been boxed into a corner over the ceasefire violations on the LoC and the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani troops.
“It is unfortunate that out of context debates take place in media. But the media is free. You have to take the good and bad of the media if you believe in a free society. But we are not going to be influenced necessarily by jingoistic conversations that take place on some sections of the media,” Khurshid told Karan Thapar on CNN IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme.
He said that the recent talks between directors-general of military operations (DGMOs) of both countries were a “positive signal”.
When asked if the peace process has been put on hold, the minister said, “I don’t think so. I think the peace process is going well. What are indications is we have got back on track quite a bit. I don’t even know to what extent we had gone off track but certainly there was a sense that we were slipping.
“We have got back on track considerably. That is a good sign and we would want that to continue. But obviously time would tell if we are back on track or not.”
On India’s reluctance to Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s offer for talks, Khurshid said “atmospherics” need to improve.
“What we need to do is to ensure that multi-dimensionally the atmospherics improve. We did hit a low point obviously a few days ago and I think it is important that we get back to a level of atmospherics that can be described as near normal (in which) the LoC remains peaceful and there is no incident that is counter-productive and then we can think of moving forward in a meaningful way,” he said.
