NEW DELHI: India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna criticised on Wednesday Home Secretary G.K. Pillai’s remarks about an alleged link between the ISI and Mumbai attacks made on the eve of his recent talks with his Pakistani counterpart.
“Mr Pillai could have waited till I came back to issue a statement. Perhaps it would have been wiser if that statement had not been made just on the eve of my visit,” Mr Krishna said in a television interview, making public his displeasure with Mr Pillai for the first time.
Mr Krishna also said that contrary to media reports his recent visit to Pakistan had helped bridge some of the trust deficit between the two countries.
Mr Pillai’s comment was based on an alleged confession of David Coleman Headley, an American mastermind in the Mumbai terror plot. The comments just ahead of Mr Krishna’s visit to Islamabad nearly wrecked the high-profile talks arranged by the prime ministers of the two countries.
Mr Krishna spoke to the media a day after a home ministry notice tersely named a new spokesperson for itself thus signalling to Mr Pillai that his remarks had not found favour with the prime minister’s office and that he should not be speaking to the press.
Immediately after returning from Islamabad Mr Krishna met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and briefed him about the Pillai episode.
“If I was the home secretary in the government, I would not have spoken about the Headley report,” PTI quoted Mr. Krishna as saying.
“India and Pakistan have to remain engaged to resolve the issues between them as there is no alternative,” Mr. Krishna said. He also said he was “quite satisfied” with his recent Pakistan trip because it had been able to partly bridge the trust deficit, according to PTI.
He said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would visit India by this year-end.
Mr Krishna’s differences with Mr Pillai did not appear to reflect any disagreement over the alleged role of ISI in the Mumbai incident, but over the timing of the revelations.
In fact, India’s National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon made a somewhat similar observation on Tuesday though he said it more diplomatically.
“Mr Pillai could have waited till I came back to issue a statement. Perhaps it would have been wiser if that statement had not been made just on the eve of my visit,” Mr Krishna said in a separate interview.
Mr Krishna had to face Pakistan’s ire at Mr Pillai’s indiscretion.
“When two foreign ministers are meeting after the Mumbai attack, there was a special significance for this meeting,” he said on Wednesday.
“Everyone who was privy to whatever was happening in government of India ought to have known that the right kind of atmosphere from India’s side should have been created for the talks to go on in a very normal manner, but unfortunately this episode happened,” he added.
“Well, I have had some discussions with the prime minister,” Mr Krishna replied when asked if he had conveyed his dissatisfaction over Mr Pillai’s remarks to Dr Singh.
Mr Krishna, however, also appeared to be critical of Mr Qureshi’s abrasive style in his interaction with the media.
“We should understand the spirit of Thimphu and spirit of Thimphu was to make earnest effort to bring about reconciliation between two countries and I do not want that spirit to be eroded even by a remotest possible way,” he said.
“I think we can put forward any contention that a country can face in a most forceful way but there has to be dignity, there has to be civility and civility is certainly no weakness,” he added.
Agencies add: According to some analysts, Mr Krishna’s remarks showed the barely concealed fissures within the government, exposing a strong division of opinion and perception within the regime on the issue of Pakistan and how to deal with it.
They noted that Mr Krishna’s criticism of Mr Pillai came a day after Mr Menon, in a deliberate move, had endorsed the home secretary’s remarks.
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