Atal rejects Musharraf146;s claims on Agra summit

Expressing his surprise over the remark made by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in his book In The Line of Fire that both of them felt insulted at the Agra summit...

Expressing his surprise over the remark made by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in his book In The Line of Fire that both of them felt insulted at the Agra summit, former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said here today 8220;no one insulted the General and certainly no one insulted me8221;.

8220;I am still to see the book,8221; Vajpayee said. However, he issued a statement 8220;just to put the record straight8221;. The former prime minister attributed the failure of the Agra summit to Musharraf8217;s position that bloodshed in J-K was 8220;people8217;s battle for freedom8221;. India, on the other hand, believed there could be no normalcy in its relations with Pakistan until cross-border terrorism ended.

Vajpayee said Musharraf took the stand that the violence taking place in Jammu and Kashmir 8220;could not be described as terrorism8221;. 8220;He continued to claim that the bloodshed in the state was nothing but the people8217;s battle for freedom. It was this stand of General Musharraf that India just could not accept,8221; Vajpayee said. 8220;And this was responsible for the failure of the Agra summit.8221;

8220;Pakistan,8221; according to Vajpayee, 8220;came to our viewpoint when, in the joint statement of January 2004, it agreed that Pakistan Government would not allow Pakistan or any land in its control to be used for purposes of terrorism.8221; The joint statement of January 2004 became a starting point for the composite dialogue between the two countries. He said, 8220;If General Musharraf had been willing to accept our position in 2000, the Agra summit would have become successful, and the three subsequent years may have proved very valuable to take our initiative forward.8221;

Though Vajpayee had issued his statement before reading Musharraf8217;s book, a copy of it had been obtained by him around 5 pm, an hour before the BJP core committee met at his residence to discuss the Indo-Pak relations.

Sources disclosed the book was used by senior leaders for reference while discussing the claims made by Musharraf.

Briefing the media after the meeting, party president Rajnath Singh said the BJP wanted the UPA government not to hold talks with Pakistan unless it agreed to end cross-border terrorism. He said, 8220;We have decided to go to people and educate them on the issue.8221;

BBC analyst rubbishes Genspeak

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NEW DELHI: A day after Pervez Musharraf claimed that the Indian nuclear programme 8220;could be a copy of Pakistan8217;s centrifuge design8221;, BBC analyst Gordon Corera 8212; whose book on AQ Khan network was launched in India today by former PM IK Gujral 8212; said the Pakistani President didn8217;t have any evidence to prove it. Corera told The Indian Express: 8220;There are no material evidence to prove India8217;s nuclear programme was a copy of Khan8217;s famed centrifuge design8221;. Author of Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity and the Rise and Fall of AQ Khan8217;s Network, Corera said the US had to prod the General to act. Even after Libya abandoned the nuclear programme in December 2003, the General was wavering to take action against 8220;the national hero8221;. He said Musharraf was aware of the Khan8217;s network but was afraid of taking on a person who was more popular than him in Pakistan. 8212; Jayanth Jacob