New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani were involved in an uncharacteristically sharp war of words in the Parliament (Lok Sabha) on Wednesday.
Advani mounted a scathing attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government's foreign policy and asked
why US President Barack Obama was interfering in Indo-Pak disputes.""The new US President Barack Obama has said again and again that he will do everything to solve the Indo-Pak problems. Before Obama the US policy was that US will not interfere in the matter unless India and Pakistan both agree to it," said Advani.
"I want that the Prime Minister tell Parliament what secret or other talks have taken place between India and Pakistan. If there are any secret talks happening on Kashmir between India and US it will have serious consequences.
Some 700 terrorists were ready to infiltrate into India. The terrorism infrastructure in Pakistan is still in place," he said .
The Prime Minister hit back, virtually accusing Advani of trying to create a divide between India and the US.
He also rubbished Advani's charges that India was talking to Pakistan under pressure from the US and denied that his government was entering into a secret deal with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir.
"I feel sorry. Whatever is being attributed to Obama is not true. There is no change in US policy on India and Pakistan. There is no change in US policy towards India,"
said Singh while replying to the Advani's charges.
Advani made the charge while replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President Pratibha Patil's address to Parliament.
An unusually combative Prime Minister cornered Advani asking how many times did the then external affairs minister, Jaswant Singh, who held a number of meetings with the US officials, shared any information with Parliament.
The BJP MP also accused the Government of not implementing the one-rank-one-pension scheme for defence personnel announced during the Union Budget 2009.
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