Seize the opportunity, CPI(M) tells Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 21. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today advocated that New Delhi should ``seize the opportunity'' and continue talks with Islamabad.

Reacting to the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf's statements at a press conference on Friday, the CPI(M) politburo member, Mr. Sitaram Yechury, told presspersons here that at least three ``openings'' have emerged from Gen. Musharraf's meet. One was his comment that both countries must watch out for the hardliners in either country, second, that there was no reference to the U.N. resolutions and third, the possibility of another meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Gen. Musharraf at the sidelines of U.N. General Assembly in September.

The CPI(M) said both the countries should marginalise the fundamentalists and carry forward the dialogue which was reopened at Agra. In its editorial in the latest issue of the party organ, People's Democracy, the CPI(M) said after the Shimla and Lahore accords, the `spirit of Agra' gave out an assurance that the dialogue would continue.

Referring to fundamentalists, the editorial said any movement towards normalisation of relations or a possibility of a solution to the Kashmir problem would amount to the fundamentalists losing their ammunition in Pakistan. On the Indian side, he said already there were calls suggesting ``purifying the places'' visited by Gen. Musharraf.

It said that while the Shiv Sena, a member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, had disapproved and opposed the summit, the RSS was hoping that the Agra meet would fail, ``so that it can continue to mount its anti-Muslim communal campaign''. There were reports that the BJP was ``satisfied'' by the failure of the summit.

The BJP, it said, had in its earlier incarnation, opposed the Shimla agreement, held protests charging that India had given too many concessions to Pakistan. ``Its hypocrisy is exposed by the fact that the same person, who then led these protests inside the Parliament and outside, swears as the Prime Minister today by the Shimla agreement as the basis for future Indo-Pak relations!''

The party said ``fundamentalists'' who were part of the Central Government and the ruling NDA today could not be allowed to sabotage the process of normalisation of Indo-Pak relations and for their short-term political gains, the interests of crores of Indians and Pakistanis could not be allowed to be held to ransom.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Centre must snap out of diplomatic stupor: Cong.
Next     : Govt. accused of 'diplomatic paralysis'