Having taken up a commitment to normalise relations with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that if he succeeded in the endeavour, it would be a job well done.
“Well, if I can succeed in normalising relations between India and Pakistan as they should prevail between two normal states, I will consider my job well done,” Dr. Singh told accompanying journalists while returning from a five-day trip to China and Kazakhstan.
Asked to spell out five objectives he would like to achieve in the relationship with Pakistan, Dr. Singh quipped: “I think five is too much...”
“I respect Hazare”
Asked whether Anna Hazare's recent fast and the accompanying public support reflected an erosion of the country's political society, Dr. Singh said: “As far as Anna Hazareji is concerned, I respect [him] as an important leader who has done a lot of good work in rural development and this is why the whole country respects him.”
On his recent statement on the “shifting of power” to people and whether it had domestic context as well, Dr. Singh said: “There is both. We have to take note of the fact that the people's power is something to be reckoned with. It is also happening internationally, in the Middle East, North Africa.”
The Prime Minister, however, added that he would not “like to pronounce authoritatively that I have an answer to what has gone wrong in that region.”
