No talks till Pak shows ‘sincerity’: Manmohan

“The present situation is so long as Pakistan chooses to allow its territory to be used against India,no negotiation can take place. We are for engagement with Pakistan but Pakistan must prove its sincerity by bringing the perpetrators of 26/11 attacks to book,” he said in an interaction with members of the Editors Guild of India.

On US suggestion that India should involve itself in its new Afghanistan-Pakistan policy,he said “we are worried about growth of terrorist elements both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If the international community and the US work to eliminate terror,in this we are willing to cooperate with them,” Singh said.

Singh said in the last five years India tried to resolve all areas of contention with Pakistan and “at one time it appeared I was about to succeed in 2007” but President Pervez Musharraf then got into problems with the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Asked how close he was to success,he said he could not disclose all details but recalled that in a speech in Amritsar he had said set out the approach of the government with regard to Pakistan and that “we had nearly succeeded in Pakistan”.

Replying to another question,the Prime Minister said India was interested in a stable,prosperous and democratic Pakistan and that it gained nothing from the collapse of its neighbour.

“We will like sooner or later to carry out the process of reconciliation but so long as Pakistan allows it territory to be used against India,we cannot resume the dialogue process,” he said.

Asked about the dangers of Pakistan’s nuclear assets falling into the hands of jihadi elements,he said “this danger is there definitely. There is a problem about in whose hands it will fall. If it falls in the hands of jihadi groups,the problem can go up and they can blackmail. But we have been assured that the nuclear assets are in safe hands. I would not like to say anything more this,” he said.

On Pakistan’s latest statement that it did not get sufficient evidence from India on involvement of Pakistani element in Mumbai attacks,Singh said that they had got enough material from “us,FBI and British government.”

“So for the Pakistan government to say that they have not got enough material is not true”,he said.

The Prime Minister also talked about India’s attempts to improve relations with neighbours. He particularly mentioned about Nepal where he said that India played an important role in transition from monarchy and ushering in of democracy in that country.

“If history is to written on this development,it will record our role. During the last leg of agitation,I had to send a Special Envoy to tell the monarch to see the writing on the wall. That changed the direction of the developments there,” he said.

In his opening remarks,the Prime Minister that India’s relations with all major countries had improved. It has strategic relations with US,Russia,China,Germany,EU and overall it had worked to create a greater international climate to give the country an elbow room.

In his opening remarks,the Prime Minister said India,which is battling terrorism,naxalism and big economic problems like poverty needs a party with a national perspective to govern the country and deal with these problems firmly.

He also expressed concern over growing regionalism and visualised inter-state water dispute as a big problem in 21st century. He said the states were fighting against each other on this issue and there was no proper mechanism to deal with this.

India,he said,was a one large common market and there were regional parties which interfere with the concept of one common market. They can create obstacles in common market through tax barriers.

“If India is mired in regional problems we will not be able to realise the full development potential,” he said.

Recalling that the UPA government had achieved an average annual growth rate of 8.6 per cent against NDA government’s 5.8 per cent,he said India can achieve a growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent.

The Prime Minister said the consensus among world leaders was that by September the global economy would show signs of recovery.

The agenda of a future Congress government would be to improve delivery system in public services,striking at poverty vigorously through improvement in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

It would also work for greater success in schemes like Sarva Siksha Abhiiyan health care and rural development.

He expressed confidence that when the next survey of poverty is undertaken it would establish that the UPA government was able to raise the per capita income of people and to reduce poverty.

To a question about the burgeoning fiscal deficit,Sing said it would not be a problem in the medium term and he would not agree with the views that subsidy on essential items like food for the poor was wrong.