Invoking his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “vision” to relentlessly back engagement over enduring animosity with Pakistan despite repeated terror attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today sought to remove the sting out of the BJP’s attack on his government over the Indo-Pak joint statement by declaring that he shared Vajpayee’s vision.

Quite contrary to the glee with which his party colleagues slam the BJP for extending the hand of friendship to Pakistan despite Kargil, Kandahar and the Parliament attack, the PM chose to take a more nuanced view to signal that his decision to engage with Pakistan was one that went beyond party politics.

“Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a decision of political courage to visit Lahore in 1999. Then came Kargil and the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar. Yet, he invited General Musharraf to Agra and again tried to make peace. The nation witnessed the terrible attack on Parliament in 2001. The armed forces of the two countries stood fully mobilized. But, to his great credit, Shri Vajpayee was not deterred, as a statesman should not be. In 2004, he went to Islamabad, where a Joint Statement was issued that set out a vision for a cooperative relationship. I must remind the House that opposition parties supported these bold steps. I, for one, share Shri Vajpayee’s vision, and I have also felt his frustration in dealing with Pakistan”, Singh told the Lok Sabha while intervening in a debate on his recent foreign visits.

This is not the first time that Singh has showered praise on Vajpayee. Today he referred to him as a “statesman”, but even earlier when he faced strong opposition to the first joint statement on the nuclear deal in 2005, Singh sought to convey to his predecessor that he had only completed the task Vajpayee had initiated through the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership.

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