Under attack over cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Siddhu’s visit to Pakistan for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony, the Congress on Tuesday posed a counter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his letter to Mr. Khan.
“I think it is extremely important to ask the Prime Minister of India, since he has written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan where there seems to be a suggestion for resumption of a dialogue despite all the red lines which was put in place over the past four years by the NDA-BJP government,” former Union Minister Manish Tewari said.
‘A non-issue’
The Congress said the Modi government’s Pakistan policy has been a series of flip flops and inconsistencies. “In 2014, the Prime Minister invited former Prime Minister Mr. Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in. Three months later, they decided to call off the foreign secretary talks on the Hurriyat question. It was followed by some kind of a talk between two National Security Advisers in Bangkok. They had pappi-jhappi [hugs] in Ufa,” Mr. Tewari said.
“That [Ufa] was followed by verbal kabaddi between External Affairs Minister Mrs Sushma Swaraj ji and her Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz,” the Congress leader said. “Then you had the Prime Minister’s sudden dash to Lahore and it was followed by the Pathankot attack … Therefore, honestly, Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu deciding to go to Pakistan in his personal capacity is actually a non-issue.”
MPs’ panel report
While the Modi governments talks about aggressive national security, parliamentary committee report suggests the opposite, Mr. Tewari said.
He said the Estimates Committee of Parliament noted that in 2017-18, defence expenditure as a percentage of the Central government expenditure was merely 1.6% of the GDP, the lowest since 1962.
“This is not a Congress report, this is not an Opposition report. This is a report unanimously adopted by the Estimates Committee of Parliament headed by a BJP MP on which 16 BJP MPs serve,” Mr Tewari said.
