A full-blown turf war has erupted on Raisina Hill here with the Union home ministry taking issue with the external affairs ministry on Thursday for distorting the controversy over the recent talks with Pakistan.
Caught in the middle is the Congress, which is now looking to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to spell out how he proposes to take the dialogue process with Pakistan forward given the Opposition discontent ahe-ad of the Monsoon Session. PMO sources said it was monitoring the situation.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao met home secretary G.K. Pillai on Thursday to clear the air.
Sources said the talks with Pakistan had not failed due to certain remarks by Mr Pillai but due to the intervention of the Pakistan Army. They accused Islamabad of making a “backdoor” attempt to restart the stalled composite dialogue by insisting on a timetable for talks on issues including Kashmir, Siachen and peace and security.
The sources said while external affairs minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi made “good progress” in their first session on July 15, lasting five hours from 11 am, sudden changes were made in Mr Krishna’s schedule that afternoon. Just 20 minutes before his scheduled meeting with Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani, Mr Krishna was told he would instead be calling on President Asif Ali Zardari, and meet Mr Gilani later. It was then that Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had met Mr Gilani. When the Krishna-Qureshi talks resumed, the Pakistani side adopted a more strident posture.
The sources warned that inter-ministerial squabbling would only give Pakistan an excuse to wriggle out of acknowledging its 26/11 role. Contrary to reports that the MHA had not kept the MEA in the loop about 26/11 co-conspirator David Coleman Headley’s interrogation, the sources said the home minister had shared details with the CCS, of which Mr Krishna is a member.