Narendra Modi, General Secretary, BJP,  August, 2001, Rastriya Sahar Magazine

Interview, Narendra Modi, General Secretary, BJP

“The PM deserves kudos for not succumbing to Pak pressure”

Q.        Wasn’t Agra summit a failure?

A.       What are the criteria for success and failure? As far as India’s is concerned, the Vajpayee government did not yield an inch be it cross-border terrorism or making Kashmir the central issue during the talks. Prime Minister Vajpayee categorically told president Musharraf that it is futile to sign any joint declaration unless he reins in the militants in J&K.

Q.        Opposition parties have severely castigated the Vajpayee government for not going to the summit without adequate preparation. Your comments?

A.       I do not know what do they mean by adequate preparation. Is it criticism for the sake of criticism? The fact of the matter is that the Prime Minister consulted all the political parties. They welcomed his invitation to Musharraf and extended their wholehearted support to the government. The mandate was to clearly tell Musharraf to stop encouraging cross-border terrorism. The Prime Minister deserves kudos for not succumbing to Musharraf’s pressure. The entire nation knows how India had yielded during the Tashkent and Shimla agreements. The Congress party should look back and see its own track record.

Q.        Don’t you think that the media management of the government was rather poor. Musharraf scored over India in putting forward his country’s point of view?

A.       We cannot behave like Musharraf. The whole world knows how he conducted himself at the Editors meeting. It was secretly taped by PTV and later released to Indian TV channels. It was a breach of trust and against all norms of diplomatic decency. I have a complaint against our media. They (barring a few) never grilled Mushrraf and did not react to his describing cross-border terrorism as a freedom struggle.

Q.        Now what will be the government’ policy vis a vis Pakistan?

A.       We will tell the world about how Pakistan is encouraging terrorism. But simultaneously India would continue its efforts to engage Islamabad in peace talks. Our government has taken several confidence-building measures and is sincere in implementing them. It is up to Pakistan to respond.

Q.        The Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj has been criticised for her out of turn briefing to the press. Your comments.

A.       The Prime Minister has already clarified that she was competent to brief the media about the points raised by India during his one to one talks with Musharraf.

-          Nigamananda Prusty