New Delhi, July 30 (Inditop.com) Congress president Sonia Gandhi Thursday backed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the India-Pakistan joint statement, indicating that the apparent gulf between the government and sections of the party had been bridged.
The new stance was also backed in public by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi who said the party and the government were “absolutely one” on the joint statement issued July 16 after Manmohan Singh met his Pakistan counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani in Egypt.
Party sources said there were differences among senior ministers initially over the joint statement that sought to delink terrorism from the dialogue with Pakistan, but Sonia Gandhi overruled them at a core committee meeting Friday last and at the Congress Parliamentary Party meet Thursday.
A senior minister said that “some ministers were particularly upset over inclusion of Balochistan in the joint statement, which the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) made the most of” during a two-day debate in parliament on the issue.
“There may be some dissenting noises now but they are not very vocal,” the minister told IANS on condition of anonymity, and pointed to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is a former external affairs minister, putting up a staunch defence of the prime minister in the Lok Sabha Thursday.
Mukherjee even had intermittent heated exchanges with BJP leaders on the issue, saying that there was no dilution in the country’s foreign policy.
For the Congress, it was quite a change from the situation a few days ago, when party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi had told journalists to “go and ask the government” on being asked to react to the joint statement.
The main opposition BJP, on its part, criticised the joint statement and attacked the prime minister, while its leader L.K. Advani led his party MPs out of the Lok Sabha in protest.
The opposition also alleged in the house that the prime minister did not have the backing of his own party on the issue.
At the parliamentary party meeting, Sonia Gandhi asserted that there was no dilution on India’s foreign policy vis-a-vis Pakistan because of the joint statement.
“No one should be in any doubt on our party’s position vis-a-vis Pakistan. It remains unchanged,” Sonia Gandhi said.
“We support the resumption of the dialogue process with Pakistan, but only after it has demonstrated its seriousness to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice and to prevent its territory from being used to launch terror attacks on any part of our country.”
She pointed out that this was imperative to restore confidence and build an environment conducive to any meaningful dialogue.
Her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi dispelled speculations that there was a disquiet within the party.
“The government and the party are absolutely one… You media have created such an impression (of differences),” Gandhi told reporters in the parliament house complex.
