Spat erupts at Indo-Pak peace talks briefing

[Desi Cartman]

ISLAMABAD: The foreign ministers' meetings between India and Pakistan all but collapsed in a welter of accusations on Thursday. Pakistan steadfastly refused to engage in any substantial manner with the critical areas of Mumbai attacks, cross-border terrorism and infiltration, choosing to argue that Islamabad could not speed "judicial" processes. The joint press conference, which started around 9pm, instead of the scheduled 2.15 pm, saw foreign minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi take on each other in what turned out to be a bruising spat beamed live. The divergence came out starkly on Balochistan and infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir as the interaction with the media almost degenerated into a joust. Asked about India's "role" in Balochistan, Krishna responded, "Forget about credible evidence, we have not received a shred of evidence". On the issue of anti-India jihad speeches of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, Qureshi actually offered home secretary G K Pillai's comments on Lashkar man David Headley's implication of ISI as a "counter-point". The equation of the mild-mannered Pillai as an equivalent to the Lashkar amir left the Indian delegation gaping. Qureshi further said Pillai's statement had come up in discussions and "both of us felt it was unwarranted". Krishna did not respond to this sally. But Qureshi's reference to Pillai as a Hafiz Saeed "clone" more or less symbolized the near futility of the engagement that was to take forward home minister P Chidambaram's discussions just last month. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Spat-erupts-at-Indo-Pak-peace-talks-briefing/articleshow/6174188.cms These people r not worth talking to .... bloody losers

[yoda]

These people r not worth talking to .... bloody losers

+1

[Desi Cartman]

No I say open the borders :orderorder: People to people contact will resolve all issues :hysterical:

[Desi Cartman]

did you mean people to animal contact ? :hmmm:

lol BTW BB is it true that India is really blocking water ? I havent read many ( actually any) Indian articles about it

[Clarke]

There's a real spat on the border ever so often; soldiers fight till the end and are martyred time and again. Do we have an answer to the cross border firing and the holy warriors ? Ours (Indo-Pak) must be the most bizarre of relationships that despite all the firing and the true god's fighters, there's peace talks going on with no road in sight. I'd like to believe if the jihad was fully stopped, Kashmir might just end up being a majorly autonomous entity being jointly administered by India & Pak .. Like thats gonna happen.

[King Tendulkar]

Why the hell are we in talks with these terrorist liars??? We are pathetic that we are even talk to these monsters

[asterix]

Everybody knows SM Krishna is incompetent..He made a fool out of himself in front of the whole media. I don't know why Congress doesn't appoints a more articulate person for the FM job? Krishna was apparently clueless and was largly briefed by the Kangress bosses over the phone during the meeting... We are ashamed of SMK..Incompetent bastard..Being a kangressi, it does comes natural to him although.. Here we have Qureshi giving interviews after inteviews and on the other hand we have this incompetent bastad SMK who says, " he has nothing to say as everything is in record"!! What effing record you effing incompetent good for nothing SMK? BTW Barkha Dutt is trying her best to make a picture that the talks are only way out and option and GK Pillai made an unnecessary remark. I know what she will do in her next edition of "We the kangressi suckers.. (people)"..

[King Tendulkar]

Everybody knows SM Krishna is incompetent..He made a fool out of himself in front of the whole media. I don't know why Congress doesn't appoints a more articulate person for the FM job? Krishna was apparently clueless and was largly briefed by the Kangress bosses over the phone during the meeting... We are ashamed of SMK..Incompetent bastard..Being a kangressi, it does comes natural to him although.. Here we have Qureshi giving interviews after inteviews and on the other hand we have this incompetent bastad SMK who says, " he has nothing to say as everything is in record"!! What effing record you effing incompetent good for nothing SMK? BTW Barkha Dutt is trying her best to make a picture that the talks are only way out and option and GK Pillai made an unnecessary remark. I know what she will do in her next edition of "We the kangressi suckers.. (people)"..

Sums it all up sadly

[King Tendulkar]

Barkha Dutt and Krishna are a disgrace to the nation of India

[asterix]

Barkha Dutt (she is part of that 'Aman Ki Asha' brigade) is infact being almost apologetic and trying to describe that both FMs were very friendly after the open public spat (I can't see what SMK spat about. He was always being "naram tatti") and had dinner together (I mean WTF? Having dinner and then sleeping with Qureshi in the hotel bed {SMK might as well have slept with Qureshi and might now be pregnant}, has got to do with the success of the talks?

[achilles]

I have a different way of looking at this. This could have turned into a major controversy. But having someone like SMK, who is known to have a thick-skin, helped matters, as he didn't fight fire with fire. The smart diplomats and the governments of the world will hold a poorer opinion of Pakistan and its FM coz he tried to flare up the Indian side, while we remained calm and took the mature way out. Its like the empty vessels' comparison. There are ups and downs of having a "volatile and aggressive" External Affairs Minister. SMK might be a touch too soft-spoken at times, but yesterday was a diplomatic master-stroke. Agreed that they have done less to warrant a dialogue with us. But by still promoting dialogue and putting pressure on them, we are exposing them before the world... pretty regularly at that. For the record, Shashi Tharoor might have made a better EAM than SMK. But he still needs to sharpen his diplomatic skillset.

[asterix]

SMK and "Diplomatic masterstroke"? You are making this up as a Mr. Bean type situation... SMK is clueless. He relies on inputs and instructions from Pranav Mukherji and Chidambaram to discuss further in a meeting.. What a sorry figure he has managed to cut out... The whole World is actually laughing at Indian Foriegn policy..Pakistan actually managed to get India in a compromising position..India has no way out of this situation..Pathetic..

[Desi Cartman]

Moron now wants to discuss kashmir .. idiots cant secure people in the pak land and are worried about J&K .. some idiots ... They dont even realize that the whole world laughs at them when they talk about peace in Kashmir at the time there is a bomb exploding in Pak every 2-3 days Kashmir can't be excluded from Indo-Pak talks: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Accusing India of being "selective" in its approach, Pakistan said the dialogue cannot move forward till its concerns were also understood by New Delhi. "If we focus more only on those issues which India gives importance to and ignore those considered important by Pakistan, then I don't think the talks can move forward," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters here. However, he said he would not call his yesterday's talks with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna a "deadlock". "There are difficulties and we need to find a way to handle them," Qureshi said, adding "we are ready to engage, we are ready to negotiate any time, anywhere and we are not in a hurry. We will wait till they are ready". He said Pakistan wanted a roadmap for the future as an outcome of the talks but the Indian side felt they did not have the mandate to make such a commitment. "India was narrowing the dialogue and we said you cannot be selective," Qureshi said. "We understand India's concerns and want to address them. But Pakistan also has its concerns and core issues which should be understood by India," he said. Taking a dig at Krishna, Qureshi said the "Indian Foreign Minister received foreign policy directions from New Delhi repeatedly during our meeting". On his part, the Pakistan Foreign Minister said he did not step out of the talks to "attend any phone calls". "Pakistan is ready for talks but dialogue should be substantive, meaningful and result-oriented. Pakistan's people and Kashmiris cannot be delinked from the situation in Jammu and Kashmir," Qureshi said. :finger: "There will not be any hitch from Pakistan side. I am ready to negotiate on any issue," Qureshi added. Seeking to blame India for the "last-minute hitch" in talks, Quershi said New Delhi appeared to be unwilling to commit to a roadmap for future engagement. He said it would not make sense to discuss aspects like cultural and trade relations while ignoring "core" issues like Jammu and Kashmir, peace and security and Siachen. "It is the nature of India-Pakistan talks that whenever there is progress, there is always a last minute hitch. There was no hitch from Pakistan's side," he said. Qureshi contended that India was "narrowing the dialogue" and Pakistan had made it clear that "you cannot be selective in discussions". The issues between India and Pakistan were already identified and part of the eight segments of the composite dialogue that had continued for four years, he said. "If they want to confine those issues, it becomes difficult for Pakistan," he said.

[achilles]

We have already carved a niche for ourselves by being the silent but shrewd delegation, that manages to put people in the spot and does that with dignity. We've been doing this for years and its been working wonders for us. To the intelligent world out there, the analysis of this situation would be- "Look at Mr.Qureshi. Just because he didn't have answers to the questions, he thought he could overwhelm India by raising his voice. All credit to India for being the maturer nation". India has historically seldom had an aggressive EAM coz we give a lot of important to content and not histrionics. See, had SMK responded angrily, Pakistan might have projected to the world - "Look, we were raising concerns but India acted high-handed and the peace process has been reduced to shambles because of them. And you guys from Europe and America say we don't address their concerns".

[bharathh]

Even if Krishna did get instructions from Delhi... what is wrong with that? He is after all representing said government in Pak. He is not there on some personal visit. Also, what's the point of these talks? I mean I understand that at some point we are going to have to talk to Pak... but why now? What will any of this achieve? As if we expect the Pak government to stop hate speech against India... yeah right. That's how the government stays in power anyways. If they stop hate speech vs India, Pak will cease to exist.

[asterix]

Nobody expected an angry reaction from SMK. All it was expected was to defend the Home Secretary of India from being equated with a terrorist like Hafiz Saeed in a press conference. SMKs silence ment that he had agreed with Pak's stance of equating GK Pillai with Hafiz Saeed. You don't have to react angrily to that. All you have to do is to dismiss it, even politely, when this is raised. By keeping mum, he actually showed that he agrees with Pak FM is saying about GK Pillai..

[asterix]

Even if Krishna did get instructions from Delhi... what is wrong with that? He is after all representing said government in Pak. He is not there on some personal visit. Also, what's the point of these talks? I mean I understand that at some point we are going to have to talk to Pak... but why now? What will any of this achieve? As if we expect the Pak government to stop hate speech against India... yeah right. That's how the government stays in power anyways. If they stop hate speech vs India, Pak will cease to exist.

Nothing wrong unless ofcourse you keep on going out of the meeting number of times to get instructions. It shows to the other party that you don't have confidence, authority and knowledge too to deal in bilateral situations and shows you that you are in a weak position which can be exploited by cunning and articulate rival counterpart. And that's exactly what happened. Chidambaram visited earlier and met withe the same officials but nobody dared to say anything to him. Here we are, armed with Headley's confessions and being 'told off' by Pakistan and the Home Secretary being equated to Hafiz Saeed by the Pak FM for just reteriating what Headley has confessed!!

[bharathh]

Well the guy would have had not been out-manouvered if he was parroting everything Qureshi was saying then right? It doesn't matter even if Jinnah is re-incarnated and takes evidence to Pak. It's not going to help at all.

[Rajiv]

This talk was eye candy for US and the world in general. It's like a tug-of- war, you can only handle the rope till a certain time, then someone has to fall.

[someone]

Personal there is nothing wrong with what Pakistan said. They also want to address their issues. Before, anyone counters it, just imagine if Pakistan came to India and started talking about their issues, we would have also issued similar statements that they should also focus on Pakistani groups. Ultimately, our own fault for repeatedly going back to Pakistan and literally begging them for action, and if they do not agree, we start crying for injustice and complain to the head principal, USA. This has not worked before and there is no reason to why it will change. Kashmir will never be the end issue, after all it is a matter of religion. Just wait for any state to have a majority Muslims, and soon Pakistan and that state will demand independence. More importantly, have to give hats off to the government, they have been very successful in completely diminishing the issue of homegrown terrorists who must have had a hand in the attacks. To use a very simple example, just imagine a person gets a disease, instead of self protecting by having a good immune system, the person starts blaming everything else.