New Delhi, November 13 – Speaking about the controversy and protests surrounding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s planned, but now cancelled, visit to Sri Lanka to attend the CHOGM summit, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said, “It was a considered decision of PM not to attend CHOGM summit in Sri Lanka keeping in mind various sentiments.”
Over the past few weeks, various Tamil parties have protest India’s participation in the CHOGM summit which is due to be held in Sri Lanka.
So much so that the Tamil Nadu government even passed a unanimous resolution moved by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in which she the UPA government at the Centre to not participate in the meet. The resolution says that in light of the alleged war crimes during the last stages of the war in April 2009 wherein it was stated that more than 40,000 civilians lost their lives, India should not attend the summit as it will give legitamacy to President Rajapaksa who is going to head CHOGM for the next two years.
At the same time, reacting to the controversy sparked by Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaz Aziz’s meeting with various Hurriyat leaders, Khurshid said, “There has to be certain seriousness in what you do and what you say. The recent incidents have not been very encouraging, rather counter-productive, not good for conducive environment for Indo-Pak dialogue.”
Aziz, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday for a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Asia and Europe, met the separatist groups separately at the Pakistan High Commission here.
Besides holding talks with the moderate faction led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Aziz also had meetings with JKLF chief Yaseen Malik and hardline Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Dukhtaran-e-Millat founder Aasiya Andrabi.
Government sources described Aziz’s meetings with the separatists as “extremely unfortunate misuse of a multilateral forum for partisan ends”.
The meetings also drew sharp reaction from BJP which said government has committed a “diplomatic blunder” by allowing this.
Mirwaiz had later claimed that the talks with the various Hurriyat leaders were aimed at finding a lasting political solution to the Kashmir issue, a key element for normalising ties between India and Pakistan.
–Indiatoday
