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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Monday ruled out any dialogue with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, saying it would be futile as long as that country continued supporting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
Talking to reporters at the end of his visit to his constituency on Monday, Vajpayee said, "Talks with Musharraf at this stage would be fruitless since there is no let up in cross-border terrorism in Kashmir."
"Even today, there has been a terrorist attack on an airport in Kashmir, which speaks volumes of what Pakistan is up to," he added.
Media reports have said Vajpayee and Musharraf could meet in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting on November 10.
Earlier, an external affairs ministry spokesperson had said in Delhi during the day that though a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting in the US was not entirely ruled out, no such proposal had been received for such a meeting.
"We have not received any proposal for such a meeting and at the moment it remains hypothetical," the spokesperson had said.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar had said in a television interview that Islamabad desired a meeting between the two leaders in New York.
Asked if he meant no dialogue was possible between the two countries, Vajpayee shot back, "Certainly not, our doors are always open for talks. But the current environment is not conducive to any such dialogue. After all what good will any kind of talks do when terrorist strikes were continuing in the valley."
The prime minister declined to answer a query as to why India, like the US, was not taking steps to destroy terrorist camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
When Vajpayee's attention was drawn to the recent firing by Indian forces at Pakistan positions on the Line of Control and its criticism by the US President George W Bush, he said, "Well, that was not an attack from our side, but only some retaliation to an onslaught from the other side."
He also denied there was any US pressure on India to stop border firing.
Vajpayee also strongly refuted suggestions that India's foreign policy had become dependent on the US.
"Our foreign policy is not guided by the US. We believe in taking our own decisions", he asserted.
To make his point further, the prime minister said, "When we were fighting the Kargil war, the US tried to pressurise us to leave some land for Pakistan, but I refused to buckle down and eventually we had our way."
"There is no question of any kind of pressure from the US. We only want to fight terrorism together so that the global menace could be ended once and all," he said.
Indo-Asian News Service
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