India’s former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha – who is also senior leader of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately call off talks between National Security and Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval – scheduled on August 23-24 in New Delhi.
Talking to the Press Trust of India news service, he also called for declaring Abdul Basit – Pakistan’s high commissioner to India – as persona non-grata for ‘crossing all lines’ of ‘diplomatic etiquette’ by inviting Kashmiri leaders. He believed that Sartaj-Doval talks would end up with opposite to Indian expectations of brokering peace with Pakistan.
Sinha said that successive (Indian) prime ministers have cherished the thought of getting ‘Nobel Peace Award’ by resolving Indo-Pakistan disputes, in an apparent gibe at Modi. The hardliner leader of the Indian ruling party said that this was not the appropriate occasion for the talks.
“From the time of (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee government, it has been our policy that terror and talks cannot go together,” he said, adding that this was the consistent policy of the BJP as well. “I think the talks (with Pakistan) should be called off,” he said. He also accused Pakistan of ‘vitiating’ the atmosphere ahead of the talks between its security advisers.
