November 27, 2001
Firmly ruling out another partition of the country, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today asserted that there was no question of India fulfilling Pakistan's demand for handing over Kashmir to it to improve bilateral ties.
On the prospects of his meeting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in early January, Vajpayee recalled his earlier remarks "If I go to Kathmandu and if Musharraf also comes there, then there is a possibility of the two meeting informally (chalte chalte)." "The country will never accept another partition,'' Vajpayee declared while winding up a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the international situation arising out of the September 11 terror attacks in the US leading to international intervention in Afghanistan and its impact on India.
He said Pakistan was under the illusion that relations with India can improve if it got Kashmir. ''This condition will never be fulfilled." Vajpayee's remarks come a day after Musharraf suggested resumption of bilateral dialogue but, at the same time, warned that Pakistan would ''teach a lesson'' to India if any offensive action was taken.
The Prime Minister said the Pakistan President was told to at least stop sponsoring cross-border terrorism in J and K during the Ramazan period but this too went unheeded.
In his hour-long intervention, Vajpayee spoke of a greater role for India in the establishment of a broad-based democratic government in Afghanistan and joint international efforts to ensure that there was no division of the war-ravaged nation.
Maintaining that India's relations with Washington were on ''equal terms'', the Prime Minister rejected Opposition criticism for his letter to US President George W Bush soon after the terrorist attack on J and K Assembly.
In his letter, Vajpayee said he had mentioned that Pakistan must understand that there was a limit to India's patience.
How could the Opposition level such an allegation that the Prime Minister of a country with hundred crore population could approach the US, or for that matter any country, with folded hands, he wanted to know.
"Such allegations cause pain... they put question marks on our patriotism that we are compromising our country's self-respect," he said, adding there might be differing views on Kashmir but a message must go that the country was fully united on Kashmir.
Amid protests from the Opposition, Vajpayee said the terrorist attacks on World Trade Centre and J and K Assembly could not be justified in any way and warned against those seeking to link terrorism with religion.
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