Addressing a press conference on board Air-India 1 on his return journey from South Africa, the Prime Minister strongly defended the mechanism and asked how else could India ask for information on terrorism except through such a mechanism.Dr Singh said: “We have evidence which we will offer to Pakistan and we will hold discussions on the basis of that evidence.”
He recalled that in the joint statement issued after his talks with President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the NAM meet in Havana, there was explicit condemnation of the Mumbai blasts.
The joint statement also mentioned that the two countries would cooperate to control this menace.
Obviously referring to the evidence which the Mumbai Police had gathered on the blasts in the metropolis, the Prime Minister said: “We will share that information with Pakistan and ascertain how sincere they are in carrying forward the commitment that I and President Musharraf have underlined in our joint statement.”
He said he discussed the problem of terrorism with the South African President Thabo Mbeki and told him that India had been a victim of cross-border terrorism for a long time, the most recent incident being the Mumbai blasts in which over 200 innocent citizens got killed and 800 persons were injured.
“Despite all that, we have been making an effort to normalise our relationship with Pakistan. This process cannot move forward unless and until both our countries work sincerely to gain mastery over this menace,” the Prime Minister said.
He described his visit to South Africa as “very satisfying”. It was President Mbeki, during his visit to India in 1997 as Deputy President, who suggested that India and South Africa should enter into a strategic partnership.
“That thought has become a reality today,” the PM said adding that he found that India’s world view coincided, by and large, with President Mbeki’s.
It was indeed a very emotional experience to visit the land where Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with truth were performed in the initial stages, he said.
The Prime Minister said South Africans had resolved their problems after Independence through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which amounted to practising Gandhism “before our very eyes”.
He stressed that India wanted a deal with the US within the parameters set out in the July 2005 and March 2006 statements signed by President Bush and him.
India had no control over the legislative process in the US and it would have to watch the situation there, Dr Manmohan Singh added.
Asked to comment on Mr Shashi Tharoor's decision to withdraw from the contest for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr Manmohan Singh said it was a Herculean task and we were up against the existing international order. For the first time, India challenged that order. Though he had not made it, his performance had been creditable and there was no need to be disheartened.
The Prime Minister said a broad political consensus on the creamy
evolved although he did not want to discuss it in public. He referred to the contradictions within the UPA with the Marxists wanting the exclusion of the creamy layer while parties like the DMK, the PMK and the RJD opposing it.
He said the discussions on economic issues, like the setting up of the special economic zones (SEZs), did not point to the weakness of the democratic system that India followed.
“SEZs have come to stay and they have to operate in a manner in which, I think, concerns which have been expressed can be dealt with and they will be dealt with,” Dr Manmohan Singh said.
Conceding that there were problems hindering economic reforms, he said there was a need to push forward reforms in the insurance and banking sectors so that investments to the tune of $ 150-200 billion, required for infrastructural growth, could be found over the next seven or eight years.
