Nainital: Hitting back at his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee for flaying the Indo-Pak joint mechanism against terror, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the arrangement was aimed at testing Pakistan on its promise to stop cross-border terrorism.
Addressing a joint press conference, Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi ruled out appointment of a Deputy Prime Minister and change of the Home Minister. Singh said a new External Affairs Minister will be appointed in due course.
Rejecting criticism of the decision to set up joint mechanism with Pakistan, Singh emphasised that New Delhi has to talk to Islamabad to ensure an end to cross-border terror and even the previous NDA government had held that view.
"The criticism against setting up of the joint mechanism is not correct. There is no change in our approach on terrorism," he said at the two-day Congress Chief Ministers' Conclave in Nainital.
Vajpayee had criticised the setting up of the joint mechanism, saying it was a "conspiracy" against the country and would jeopardise the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Taking a swipe at Vajpayee, the Prime Minister said his predecessor had invited Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to Delhi in 2001 after the Kargil conflict, shook hands with the Pakistani leader in Kathmandu after the terror attack on Parliament in 2001 and then travelled to Islamabad in 2004.
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