Chidambaram snubs Pak counterpart over wish to visit India

India on Thursday gave a cold shoulder to Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s wish of coming to New Delhi to perhaps sign the relaxed visa agreement that would facilitate greater people-to-people contact between the two countries.

Though Union Home Secretary R K Singh-led Indian delegation was prepared to sign new visa agreement during its just concluded two-day visit to Islamabad, it could not be signed as the Pakistan establishment could not finish its internal discussions.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram brushed aside a question seeking his response to his Pakistani counterpart showing interest in coming to India by giving a simplistic answer.

“Visits by ministers at the Central government level are decided at the highest level in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs. It is not a matter of A inviting B. I can invite you to my home for a tea. But that is not the way you can simplify the issue. These are decisions taken at the highest level after consulting the MEA and others involved,” he told reporters during the monthly press conference held here on Thursday.

During the home secretary-level talks in Islamabad, an impression was crated that Malik wanted to sign the new visa agreement in the presence of both home ministers, said Home Secretary R K Singh, who was also present at the press meet.

Singh said the Pakistani delegation informed us that after the internal approvals, they would seek our convenient date to sign the agreement. “I told them that when you seek our convenience, we will see and consult to determine our convenience,” the home secretary said.