Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday dialogue was the only way to resolve differences between India and Pakistan. He could see “hopeful signs'' and an atmosphere in which negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad could go forward.
The Prime Minister was replying to the motion of thanks on the President's address to both Houses of Parliament.
“I sincerely hope and believe that the new ruling classes of Pakistan would grasp the hands of our friendship and recognise that whatever are our differences, terror as an instrument of State policy, is something that no civilised society ought to use,'' he said.
Dr. Singh informed the Lok Sabha that Foreign Secretaries of both nations had agreed to resume the dialogue process after a bilateral meeting in Thimphu last month.
Full development of the Indian sub-continent could not be achieved unless India and Pakistan normalised the relations between them. “I have been working for that objective since 2005,” he said.
“Some progress was made, but then there was a lapse and the terrorist elements, would of course, not allow the process of normalisation to come into effect,” he noted.
Dr. Singh said he was convinced and believed that there was growing conviction in Pakistan's thinking population as well that terrorism was not an instrument that could be used by any civilised government as an instrument of State policy.
Sri Lanka ties
On relations with Sri Lanka, he said the government would continue to impress upon Colombo to ensure that the Tamil minorities there got an honourable place in the nation's polity.
Dr. Singh referred to the troubles faced by Indian fishermen with the Sri Lankan authorities. He said there was need to find a permanent solution to the problem. “They can arrest Indian fishermen if they venture into their waters but killing them is not acceptable.”
