PM tells Opp forget my trips, look ahead

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said the Chinese transgression in AP during the PM’s visit was not planned. ‘‘It was not pre-meditated. We have taken up the matter with Beijing. China has responded with a letter and we are looking into it,’’ he said.

The PM also hit out at those who reminded him time and again of his statements on foreign policy issues like Tibet when he was Foreign Minister in 1978. He picked on Congress MP Natwar Singh and former Union Minister Ram Jethmalani who had described in florid tones how the PM had gone back on all he had stood for.

On the autonomous region of Tibet, he said there was no change in India’s policy. ‘‘India’s stand has not changed. However, one should not be bogged down by history,’’ he added. ‘Then I reflected people’s views but now I listen to what people say and reflect the nation’s view,’’ he said amid applause.

The PM, made it a point to tell Natwar Singh that he did not like his bringing up Rajiv Gandhi’s China initiative. ‘‘You keep referring to ‘Rajiv’s path-breaking China visit. Let me tell you, it was I who went there first in 1978 but did Rajiv congratulate me?’’ he asked.

On Pakistan, he said: ‘‘We hurried when we went to Lahore but had to come back to Kargil.’’ He asserted that India wanted friendship with Pakistan.