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Talks with Pak not now: PM
LS adopts Motion of Thanks
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 25—The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said there was no possibility of resumption of dialogue with Pakistan till that country stopped cross-border terrorism and hostile propaganda against India.

Replying to the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address to the joint session of Parliament, the Prime Minister, who spoke soon after the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, concluded her speech, dwelt at length on the developments in Pakistan, the prevailing economic situation, with particular reference to cut in subsidies, drought in different parts of the country and setting up of a commission to review the Constitution.

Mr Vajpayee, however, avoided speaking on the issue of price rise which raised the heckles of the Left parties. Expressing dissatisfaction over omission of reference to price rise in the Prime Minister’s speech, the Left parties walked out.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi, while participating in the discussion, launched a scathing attack on the performance of the Vajpayee-led government saying it had failed on all fronts. She said secularism was repeatedly under assault by the Sangh Parivar.

She said the attempts by the Prime Minister to give an impression that he was protecting secularism were not out of conviction but out of compulsion to protect his fragile coalition.

Later, the Lok Sabha while passing by voice vote the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address to the joint session of Parliament, rejected all amendments following the Prime Minister’s reply.

Defending the setting up of the Constitution review commission, the Prime Minister held out an assurance that there was no proposal at all to change the basic features enshrined in the Constitution.

Referring to the relations with Pakistan, Mr Vajpayee said: “Pakistan has repeatedly violated the Simla agreement and the Lahore Declaration and we do not know what its intentions are. We want friendly relations with Pakistan but it cannot be a one-way traffic”. He said “we have goodwill for the Pakistani people and we are continuing our efforts to have friendship at the people-to-people level. We wanted to talk to Pakistan but the peace process initiated by India at Lahore was reciprocated by the Kargil incursions. We do not want to undertake such travels anymore”.He asserted that Pakistan must create the appropriate and conducive atmosphere for resumption of the dialogue process by stopping ISI-backed terrorist activities across the country, violations of the Line of Control (LoC) and hostile campaign against India.

Describing the visit of US President Bill Clinton to India last month as very useful, he said the attitude of the USA had changed regarding Jammu and Kashmir and Washington had made it clear that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and it would remain so.

Recalling the words of Mr Clinton that no country should attempt to redraw borders with blood, Mr Vajpayee said the massacre of Sikhs in Chitti Singhpora by Pakistan-backed terrorists during the US President’s visit had established Islamabad’s agenda to try to force its nefarious designs through terrorist activities. Responding to Mrs Gandhi’s criticism of the government’s policy on secularism, Mr Vajpayee said his government did not make any discrimination against any religion and treated all religions equally. “This is the basis and foundation of our secularism. We do not want to use it for political or parochial considerations”, he said.

Referring to the recent attacks on Christians, the Prime Minister condemned the incidents and said the Home Ministry was going into them and that stringent punishment would be meted out to the guilty.

Maintaining that two years of governance by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had taken the country forward, he said India continued to be young and a vibrant nation with 60 per cent of its population being

below the age of 35 years.

He said the Congress, which was now opposing the Constitution of the commission, had set up a committee headed by former External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh to review the Constitution.

On economic reforms, the Prime Minister said it was the Congress which had initiated the reforms programme. Since the NDA government was now in power, the Congress had adopted a negative attitude to economic reforms and opposed these. It was the Congress which was for reducing subsidies gradually. There should be consensus on this issue among the political parties, he said. Mr Vajpayee virtually ruled out a rollback of hike in fertiliser prices, saying subsidies on these nutrients was helping the industry more than the farmers. He said the economy had emerged stronger due to reform policies of the government in the past two years and hoped that the country would soon attain the GDP growth of 7-8 per cent annually from 5.9 per cent now. All economic indicators, including 6.6 per cent growth in industry and surge in foreign exchange reserves, symbolised the improvement in the economy and this was the result of successful economic policies of the Government, he added.

The Prime Minister however, expressed grave concern over the conditions of some of the public sector undertakings where workers were practically rendered idle and wondered what the government should do about the unviable PSUs. He criticised the Left parties for their policies on the PSUs and said the situation of West Bengal would not be allowed to be repeated in other parts of the country.

He, however, said that the government was re-examining the case of the ailing Indian Drug and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL) in a bid to revive the corporation.

Speaking before the Prime Minister gave his reply to the discussion on motion of thanks to the President’s Address, Mrs Gandhi said her party was not in quarrel with the stance on the issue of secularism of the national agenda of governance of the NDA government but with the “not so hidden agenda of the largest single party to which it has pledged its first loyalty”. She charged the government with failure on all fronts, including economic and agriculture sectors, and added that the subsidy cut on fertilisers and hike in diesel prices had worsened the problems of the farmers.

She said the hike in prices of commodities distributed through the PDS and diesel prices, withdrawal of fertiliser subsidy and weakening of various anti-poverty and employment generation programmes showed that the government had launched an assault on the poor instead of poverty.

She said the fertiliser subsidy had been drastically cut at a time when stagnating agriculture was in need of more incentives to maintain self-sufficiency in foodgrains production.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi also charged the government with “hurriedly and secretly” advancing the date of allowing imports of several commodities by two years when the indigenous industry was seeking time to adjust to the global competition. Amid cries of shame from the opposition members, she said the announcement of this “betrayal” did not come from New Delhi but Washington.

Turning her attention to international relations, the Leader of the Opposition said India was cutting a sorry figure in international relations and its performance in the Kandahar hijack drama was a matter of concern to all Indians. The picture of the External Affairs Minister escorting terrorists to Kandahar would not be easily erased from the minds of the people, she remarked.

Speaking on the drought situation, Mrs Gandhi appealed to the Prime Minister not to deal with the drought situation in several states with a “cold political heart” and charged the Centre with not providing adequate help to cyclone-hit Orissa last year.

“I appeal to the Prime Minister not to deal with the situation with a cold political heart, but just a benevolent one”, she said.