Talks with Pak. ruled out

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 25. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today that no meaningful dialogue with Pakistan was possible so long as Islamabad continued to back cross-border terrorism and persist with its ``hate India'' campaign. India wanted friendly relations with Pakistan but it could not be a one-way traffic, he told the Lok Sabha while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President's address.

Ruling out resumption of talks with Pakistan, Mr. Vajpayee, said Islamabad had violated the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration and there was no point having another agreement on the ``ruins'' of earlier accords. India was keen on friendly relations with Pakistan and that's what the Lahore bus ride was about, but ``we ended up with Kargil''. India did not want history to repeat itself in such a fashion.

The Prime Minister called upon Pakistan to create ``appropriate'' conditions for resumption of talks, quoting approvingly the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton's remark that no country should try to redraw borders with blood. He declared that Jammu and Kashmir was an ``integral'' part of India and ``will remain so''.

He was ``happy'' that the U.S. had changed its stand on Kashmir and said there had been a ``qualitative'' improvement in Indo-US relations following Mr. Clinton's visit.

Earlier, the Leader of the Opposition, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, said it was ``naive'' of the Government to have embarked on the Lahore process when the borders were being breached. The country had to pay a heavy price for the ``naivete'' of the Lahore bus ride, she said. She accused the Government of ``bending its knees'' in international fora and said its handling of the hijack crisis was a ``shameful appeasement''. The sight of the Foreign Minister travelling with the terrorists in the same plane would ``never be erased from the minds of the people.''

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