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India to Carry Forward Talks With Pakistan: Vajpayee
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Tuesday that New Delhi was ready to carry forward talks with Pakistan on Kashmir which he described as "a part of our life."
"We are ready to have talks on Jammu and Kashmir. For you (Pakistan) it is a piece of land. But Kashmir is a part of our life, " the Indian leader told members of the Indian parliament.
During a debate in Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, Vajpayee asserted that Kashmir was not a simple issue. "It is related with our emotions."
"We do not accept the principle of two-nation theory on the basis of which Pakistan was created," Vajpayee said.
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh gave a detailed account on Monday at a parliament meeting of the summit between Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in India's ancient city of Agra last month, during which the two sides failed to signed any agreement or declaration.
Vajpayee said in his 40-minute speech that the summit broke down because of insistence by Musharraf on having a one-point agenda of Kashmir and his refusal to incorporate reference to cross-border terrorism and Simpla and Lahore agreements, sighed between the two neighbors in the 1970s and 1999, in the draft joint document.
He did not mention the invitation extended to him by Musharraf during their meeting to visit Pakistan. Vajpayee had accepted the invitation on the first day of their two-day meeting.
Vajpayee again asked Islamabad to stop cross-border terrorism, saying "there can not be any improvement of relations (between India and Pakistan) if these things continue."
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