A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India's efforts to engage Pakistan were on, with peace as the supreme objective but with “full freedom” to the forces to “answer back”, the opposition attacked him for not having a coherent, clear and consistent Pakistan policy.
Diplomacy requires eriousness, gravitas and not “theatrics”, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said.
“Nobody is against engaging with Pakistan but what we have questioned him (Modi) is about not taking the opposition into confidence,” Mr. Sharma added.
The government does not have a comprehensive policy on Pakistan, Communist Party of India(Marxist) politburo member and leader Brinda Karat said.
Targeting the Centre, she said it is really a “show-based” policy rather than a serious diplomatic initiative to deal with a neighbour that has undoubtedly been encouraging terrorists groups against India.
“One day you say you are going to bomb Pakistan. The next day your Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) says you are not going to count the bullets that are going to be used against Pakistan,” Ms Karat said, recalling that Mr Modi went to Pakistan to greet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday.
Meanwhile, Congress leader P.L. Punia accused the government of pursuing a “dual strategy” when it came to Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan: one the one hand, it had appreciated his work but, simultaneously, it agreed ith what the Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy had said about him, and had brought his tenure to an end.
“Our economy is passing through such a time that equires stability. There was a need for continuity,” the Congress leader said.
Mr. Punia’s comments came a day after another Congress leader Kapil Sibal had described the BJP MP as “nuclear fissile material” brought to Parliament by the ruling party, which was bound to “implode”.
