Is the US pressuring India to talk to Pak, asks Advani

Bhartiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani sought to know if the government's U-turn on holding talks with Pakistan was the upshot of "a powerful nudge from Washington." He also warned against any deal on Kashmir that would breach the Lok Sabha's unanimous resolution on February 22, 1994, on Jammu and Kashmir.

Advani's query indicates that he is privy to some kind of information given to him on this score by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while unsuccessfully seeking the BJP's support for resumption of talks with Islamabad.

Advani has not spelled out any such an indication in a 2-page statement issued in New Delhi. Instead, he has traced his fears to President Barack Obama poll promise of, "working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way" during his 2008 presidential campaign as one of the critical tasks of his administration.

Advani noted that the government's sudden willingness to hold the foreign secretary-level parleys with Pakistan has made many political analysts in the country wonder whether the offer fot talks was a consequence of Obama's assertion being put into action.

Advani said, that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani boasted that international pressure has forced India to return to the negotiating table. He asked if there was any other reason to hold talks, reversing India's steadfast stand after 26/11 against resumption of talks until Islamabad brings the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice and cracks down on terrorist groups operating from its soil.

Advani has also re-produced the page-long Lok Sabha resolution to assert how categorical and unambiguous it is at a time when Pakistan is gloating over the United Progressive Alliance government's volte face on the isue of Indo-Pak dialogue.

He noted that the resolution expresses deep concern over Pakistan's role in Jammu and Kashmir 'in imparting training to terrorists in camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, supply of weapons and funds, assistance in infiltration of trained militants, including foreign mercenaries into Jammu and Kashmir with the avowed purpose of creating disorder, disharmony and subversion.'

The resolution condemned Pakistan for continued support and encouragement to subversive and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, declaring that Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and Pakistan must vacate the areas of the state it has occupied through aggression.