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India rules out talks with Pak

Ashok Tuteja in Dubai

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has virtually ruled out the possibility of India holding any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan on outstanding issues as long as Islamabad continued to encourage fundamentalism and cross-border terrorism in India.

"We have been experiencing cross-border terrorism that is encouraged by our neighbours and also by their agents," he charged in an interview to an Ankara-based newspaper.

Asked to comment on Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf's recent statement in which he spoke about the possibility of talks between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir question, Singh said, "I haven't seen the text of it yet. I have only heard (about) it through newspapers."

However, he hastened to add that it was now well recognised that India was the initiator of all efforts at peaceful resolution of all issues.

"We have initiated a peaceful resolution and are ready to do that. But that purpose cannot be followed by the armed aggression of Pakistan. Also how are we to engage in meaningful discussion if Pakistan continues to encourage fundamentalism and cross-border terrorism?" he asked.

He once again made it clear that there was no room for any third-party mediation in bilateral disputes between India and Pakistan.

Speaking at length on Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said that the Kashmir question was a matter of Indian nationhood.

"We do not believe or accept the definitions of nationhood on the basis of subscription to faith. Simply because there is a preponderance of those who subscribe to the faith of Islam in the valley of Kashmir is not a sufficient reason for us that the denomination of nationalism somehow supercedes civic nationalism. It is also now sufficiently recognised that India has the second largest Muslim population in the world, following Indonesia. We have many more Muslims living in India than in Pakistan," he added.

UNI

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