It has now become clear the Home and External Affairs Ministries of the government were “not on the same page” and differences between some senior Congress leaders and Home Minister P. Chidambaram on tackling Naxalites have also become public, the Bharatiya Janata Party noted on Thursday.
This lack of one voice of the government on important issues related to India's internal security and foreign policy have had an adverse impact on critical strategic matters, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The latest in a series of incidents was External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna's “insulting and humiliating” remarks against Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, Mr. Prasad said. He was referring to comments made by Mr. Krishna that Mr. Pillai's remarks on the interrogation of 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley revealing an involvement of the ISI in the Mumbai attack were factual but “ill-timed.”
Harking back to the recent events in Islamabad during the Krishna-Qureshi talks, Mr. Prasad suggested the line between sobriety and submission was very thin. He implied Mr. Krishna had not just been sober in the face of insults by Mr. Qureshi during the recent minister-level talks in Islamabad, but was too submissive.
The BJP view was that there was nothing wrong in Mr. Pillai “speaking out the truth.” Moreover, National Security Adviser Shivsankar Menon had backed him. “Why had Mr. Krishna chosen to attack Mr. Pillai now but had remained silent when Mr. Qureshi compared him with alleged Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed?”
“It was blunder in Baluchistan, insult in Islamabad, where does India's foreign policy stand? Diplomatic protocol is fine as is dignified behaviour and sartorial elegance [displayed by Mr. Krishna in Islamabad], but what about India's dignity?” Mr. Prasad asked and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should not remain silent.
