PM lays down terms for talks

NEW DELHI, JUNE 7: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today accused Pakistan of violating the Shimla agreement and warned that if Islama...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 7: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today accused Pakistan of violating the Shimla agreement and warned that if Islamabad was sponsoring the intrusion to alter the Line of Control, any proposed talks 8220;will end before they have begun.8221; Vajpayee also laid down preconditions for talks with Pakistani foreign minister Sartaj Aziz: Pakistan must acknowledge the intrusion and promise to reverse it.

Ten days after his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif called him on the phone, the prime minister took an unambiguous hard line on the Kargil conflict in a televised address to the nation.

8220;India is always open to talks. But the talks must have a definite, specific purpose. In the present instance, the subject is one and one alone: the intrusion and how Pakistan proposes to undo it. To discuss this, our doors are always open, and all dates are convenient to us,8221; Vajpayee said.

The prime minister also delicately introduced into his address the fact that both countries are nuclear powers. Reacting to the perceived nuclear blackmail by Pakistan, where it has been said that any weapon could be used in an escalating conflict, Vajpayee pointed out that, consequently, 8220;both our responsibilities in this regard are greater.8221;

The prime minister8217;s address also sought to end the vacillations in the government on the handling of the Kargil conflict. 8220;No one should entertain the slightest doubt,8221; he said, that the armed forces would not stop till they are successful in their mission. 8220;No one shall stop them till they have done so,8221; he added.

Vajpayee also gave reasons why Pakistan had embarked on this audacious act to alter the LoC. 8220;Fomenting insurgency was not enough8230;now they have been sent to occupy our territory. And, having occupied it, to choke off our links with other parts of the country, in particular with Siachen and Ladakh.8221;

The prime minister made a point-by-point rebuttal to the Pakistani assertion that the LoC was still undemarcated foreign minister Aziz as well as the spokesman of the Pakistani armed forces Rashied Qureshi have said so. The Shimla agreement, he said, binds both sides to respecting the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the other.

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The Agreement, which deals specifically with the LoC, lays down that after the December 17, 1971 ceasefire, the resulting LoC must be respected. That 8220;neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally.8221; That both sides refrain from threatening or using force to violate this line.

8220;And yet that is exactly what Pakistan has done: it has used force in an attempt to unilaterally alter the Line of Control,8221; Vajpayee said.

The military authorities in 1972, the prime minister went on to say, on both sides went over the LoC, 8220;section by microscopic section. The salients, the locations, the coordinates were marked out on detailed maps. The exercise was done thoroughly,8221; he added. As many as five months were taken on delineating the maps so that no ambiguity may remain.

Vajpayee also said that the time had come for everybody to stop 8220;our petty squabbles8221; and stand by the armed forces in this critical hour.