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Cong confident PM will clear air on Indo-Pak statement New Delhi, July 27 The Congress has been stonewalling all questions on the joint statement for the past week. It, however, broke its silence today with a unilateral statement expressing confidence in the Prime Minister. “The Congress is confident that when the Prime Minister speaks in Parliament July 29, he will set at rest all apprehensions and speculation relating to the Indo-Pak joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt,” the Congress media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi told mediapersons. Dwiivedi did not elaborate further but the party was hard put to explain the reasons for its earlier ambivalence on the issue. The Congress spokespersons have persistently maintained that they have nothing to add to the Prime Minister’s clarificatory press conference at Sharm El Sheikh and his subsequent statements in the Parliament. The party has failed to endorse the joint statement or back the PM wholeheartedly. Party leaders privately admit they have reservations on the decision to delink the action on terrorism from the resumption of composite dialogue between India and Pakistan. It is also unhappy with the reference to Balochistan in the joint statement. While maintaining that there was “surprise and unhappiness” in the Congress over the language of the joint statement, party managers brushed aside suggestions of a major rift between the party and the government on the issue.” The party decided not to say anything since the Prime Minister is going to speak in the Parliament on Wednesday and the Congress president is to articulate her views at a party meeting the next day. We did not want to preempt our leaders,” explained a senior Congress leader. The Congress party’s grudging support for the Prime Minister follows his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other senior party leaders last Friday where the PM explained the sequence of events in Sharm El Sheikh and dispelled their apprehensions on the joint statement. His foreign policy initiative was endorsed by Sonia Gandhi and it was decided that the party and the government would speak in one voice in the Parliament to counter the opposition, which was preparing to mount a scathing attack on the PM for what it describes as a “diplomatic blunder.” Cong rallies around PM on joint statement New Delhi, July 27 Apprehending pointed media queries on the Congress’ stand over the PM’s statement and whether there was a rift in the party due to it, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi indulged in some active BJP bashing by playing up Rajnath Singh’s statement that the party would not leave its Hindutva agenda at any cost. Rajnath, while addressing party workers in Lucknow, had said the BJP was determined to follow the Hindutva agenda and the party would not leave it at any cost. Unleashing the anti-BJP rhetoric, the Congress spokesman said: “The days of double, triple and multi-speak are back. After Rajnath Singh’s clarion call, we want to ask which brand of Hindutva --- Narendra Modi, Varun Gandhi or Vinay Katiyar --- the BJP now wants to adopt.” But that did not stop the unrelenting media to badger him for a clear answer on the joint statement issue. However, Singhvi said the PM had already spoken to the media on the issue and that he had nothing to add. “In all likelihood, the PM is going to speak on the issue in Parliament on July 29,” he added. Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi also said the PM will make a statement in the Parliament to put to rest all questions, apprehensions and speculation relating to the joint statement. “Beyond that I have nothing to say,” he added. Ever since the controversy broke, Congress spokespersons have been religiously following the mandate that till the time PM makes a statement in Parliament, the party will maintain a studious silence on the issue from the official platform.
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