Refusing to join the chorus in the party that has termed the recent Indo-Pak joint statement in Sharm-el-Sheikh a “sellout”, former External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh has made known his intention to wait for a “ministerial pronouncement on the subject”. He even refused to comment on the Indo-US end-user agreement, unlike his party that has accused the government of “compromising country’s security and sovereignty”. He merely said that he could not comment on it without seeing the full text of the agreement.

Speaking for the first time on the issue, Jaswant told The Sunday Express: “A ministerial pronouncement on the subject is yet to be made on the issue. Foreign Secretary (Shivshankar Menon), a distinguished Foreign Service Officer, has said it was a case of error in drafting the Indo-Pak joint statement. It is an unhappy development.”

Menon, while interacting with a group of MPs in Parliament House last week, had said: “The (Indo-Pak) joint statement can be faulted for bad drafting but the meaning is clear that the composite dialogue is not de-linked from Pakistan taking action on terrorism, action against terrorism should not stop because there is no dialogue.”

The BJP has repeatedly raised the issue in Parliament in the last week and the Opposition alliance plans to meet the President shortly “to demand course corrections in the UPA ’s foreign policy initiatives”.

While the BJP and other opposition parties have strongly objected to the Indo-US end-user agreement, Jaswant refused to be drawn into the debate. “This has been under negotiation for a long time. But I cannot comment on it unless I see its full text. For instance, it’s still not very clear if it’s an agreement or an arrangement,” he said.

... contd.