Thackeray misgivings over summit remain

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JUNE 27. The Shiv Sena, a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance, has misgivings about the proposed summit between the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, but has not objected to the meeting.

Talking to presspersons here today, he chose to play down the viability of a dialogue with Pakistan, without being critical of Mr. Vajpayee's efforts for one. ``When vexed issues could not be solved for 53 years, how can they be sorted out in one sitting?'' he asked. He also pointed to the continued activity of the Laskhar-e-Taiba and ISI operatives.

Soon after Mr. Vajpayee's invitation to Gen. Musharraf, Mr. Thackeray spoke of the inevitability of the need to talk to a neighbour and had described it as a necessary process. But even then, the misgivings about the possible outcome came to the surface.

Using the issue of the recent film `Gadar', now attracting Muslim ire in many parts of the country for being anti-Muslim, he again harped on his theory of ``Muslims being disloyal to the country and of actually being pro-Pakistan''. Those who applauded in the theatres when the protagonist hailed Pakistan ``should be sent packing across the border''.

In an interview to Saamna ,he held forth on how Muslims continued to show a preference to Pakistan and said that ``they should be .... sent out''.

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