JOIN USThe Congress on Sunday accused the Modi government of being unprepared and lacking in focus which led to Pakistan “wriggling out” of the National Security Adviser (NSA) talks.
The opposition party also said the vicissitudes of Indian domestic policy should not have been allowed to make a mockery of India’s status in the world.
“Unfortunately, the Government of India has played into its (Pakistan’s) hands by being imprecise, by being unprepared, by lacking focus, by being ad hoc, by not doing sufficient hard-nosed groundwork, good old-fashioned diplomacy and preparation,” AICC spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.
He also hit out at the Modi government for frittering away the gains of the last decade on a range of issues with Pakistan.
“They should have been alert on this and should have had prior planning on Pakistan’s possible response. Therefore, such a plan should have been put in place so that Pakistan could not have said no to talks on terror,” Singhvi said.
Slamming Pakistan, the Congress said it wanted to run away from all issues related to terrorism, particularly on those serious matters on which it can be cornered.
“Pakistan is clearly using the refuge of technicalities to avoid talk on terror,” Singhvi said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh also hit out at Pakistan saying if it had to raise the Kashmir issue, it should have done so in Ufa when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with Nawaz Sharif.
Singhvi also reminded the Modi government that foreign policy has been consensus driven and cited how the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao had sent the then Leader of the Opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee to represent India at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva in March 1994 to calm the Kashmir debate.
“I think the government needs to get its house in order. It needs to make sure that multiple agencies which suddenly appear to have started making Indian foreign policy, either the multiplicity is eliminated or complete unity and coherence are introduced in all those multiple agencies to speak through one agency and in one voice,” Singhvi said.