New Delhi: As the fate of National Security Advisor-level talks between India and Pakistan remains uncertain, the Narendra Modi government on Friday sent a strong message to the Nawaz Sharif regime saying the latter's agenda to discuss Kashmir is unacceptable and in violation to the joint statement at Ufa. India has maintained that it is committed to talk as per the Ufa agreement with terrorism as the top most agenda.
While addressing a press conference, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swaroop said, "Pakistan took 22 days to respond to the Indian proposal to meet in New Delhi. It then proposed an agenda that was at complete variance with what the two prime ministers had agreed upon in Ufa."
"These two actions indicated its reluctance to go forward with sincerity on the agreed process," Swaroop added.
Pakistan reacted strongly to insist that it would not depart from the "established past practice" of interacting with separatist Hurriyat leaders from Kashmir, rejecting India's advice not to go ahead with their meeting with Aziz.
India hit back accusing Pakistan of trying to evade its commitment to engage in a substantive discussion on terrorism as had been agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Ufa (Russia) in July 2015.
It said that Islamabad's insistence on meeting Hurriyat leaders as a pre-condition was a complete departure from the Ufa understanding. Moreover, India has always held the position that there are only two, not three, stakeholders in the bilateral relationship.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs unilateral imposition of new conditions and "distortion of the agreed agenda cannot be the basis for going forward".
Meanwhile, Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah's house arrest has been lifted. He and other separatists will be coming to Delhi on Saturday.
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