New Delhi, August 7
The fate of dialogue with Pakistan hangs in balance in the wake of the killing of five Indian soldiers along the Line of Control (LOC) yesterday.

With the BJP upping the ante against the government over its policy towards Pakistan, New Delhi is highly unlikely to respond to Islamabad’s proposal to hold the Secretary-level meeting on the Tulbul Navigation Project in Islamabad on August 27-28. This particular meeting would have marked the resumption of the third round of the dialogue process, which has been stalled since January following the beheading of an Indian soldier in January.

Senior officials were even tight-lipped on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September.

“A call on whether he should meet Nawaz Sharif will be taken by the PM himself based on the inputs he receives from the External Affairs Ministry and the Defence Ministry,” a source said.

The opinion within the echelons of power on resuming dialogue with Pakistan is sharply divided. There are hardliners who think any move to resume the dialogue would boomerang at this stage, given the overwhelming sentiment in the country in the wake of the Indian soldiers’ killing. At the same time, there are others who feel that cancelling the dialogue will only embolden terrorist outfits and the Pakistan Army and weaken Nawaz Sharif, who has shown his keenness to improve ties with India.

On its part, Pakistan, which has denied its involvement in the killing of Indian soldiers, renewed its offer for a ‘sustained and meaningful’ engagement with India that would produce mutually beneficial results.

In a congratulatory letter to Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said the exchange of goodwill message between the leadership of the two countries needed to be carried forward and that he looked forward to working closely with his Indian counterpart in addressing all issues of mutual interest.

The MEA is maintaining a studied silence on the entire issue. A weekly press briefing of the ministry, which was to be held yesterday, was postponed to today. Now it has been deferred indefinitely.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid appears to be of the view that calling off talks with Pakistan would only escalate tension between the two countries. In interviews to television channels, the minister said India did not want to create a situation “detrimental and destructive for India’s security and peace”. He apparently had in mind the situation likely to unfold in the region after the drawdown by NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

New Delhi, August 7
Top BJP leaders today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and expressed their “deep anguish” over the happenings of the past two days and insisted that there should be no talks between India and Pakistan till the time Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif proved that he actually controlled his Army.

Led by senior leader LK Advani, the BJP leaders raised objections to Defence Minister AK Antony’s statement on the killing of Indian soldiers along the LoC. Calling it a “goof up”, they reiterated their demand for a clarification and an apology on the “serious and sensitive matter”. Antony was also present on the occasion.

During the hour-long meeting with the PM, the BJP leaders raised the issue of the Defence Minister’s statement, wherein he had said that the Indian soldiers were killed by “terrorists along with some persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniform”. The BJP contingent, which included party president Rajnath Singh and senior leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, was categorical that Antony’s “contradictory statement” was intended at giving a “clean chit” to Pakistan.

They also sought to know from the PM the compulsion for issuing a statement favouring Pakistan,” sources said. The government had promised to issue a statement tomorrow after which the party would firm up its strategy on the issue. Till then, there would be no dilution in the party’s current stand on Antony’s statement, they added.

“The BJP leaders told the PM not to treat the issue in a casual manner. They also told him that the country did not want to see their PM meeting the Pakistan PM on the sideline of the UN General Assembly session in New York next month and that the politics of appeasement would not work. But the PM did not offer any explanation on why he believed that talks with Pakistan were important,” sources said.

The BJP leaders were called by the PM to discuss the Bangladesh Land Border Agreement, on which the government is seeking their support, but the hour-plus meeting was more on the killings of five Indian soldiers on the LoC and the events that followed.

Signed in September 2011 during PM’s visit to Dhaka, the Bangladesh agreement needs to be ratified by the Parliament through a Constitutional amendment Bill, which means getting two-thirds majority.

Sources said the BJP conveyed its reservations on the agreement saying India would have to give much more land in lieu of what it would receive. This is also the view expressed by the people of the region, they said. Any agreement on the issue should be according to the law and the wishes of local people, they said.

Earlier in the day, Advani said the Defence Minister should himself tell “the House what the truth is and apologise that what he said is false”.