Former foreign minister in the Atal Bihari government Jaswant Singh said that if voted to power the National Democratic Alliance would continue the process of holding dialogue with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and simuatenously engage the All Party Hurriyat Conference as was done during Vajpayee's tenure as prime minister.
He was briefing newsmen on foreign policy and national security and the United Progressive Alliance's disastrous governance after a resolution passed by the Bharatiya Janata Party national executive at the end of the day's seliberations.
Jaswant also answered questions relating to Nepal and Bangladesh. The latter has emerged as an epicentre of terrorism in the last few years and has been providing shelter to terrorists from the north-east.
He charged the government of India of bringing Nepal under Communist rule.
"The UPA government should have asked for the Maoists to surrender all their weapons before holding elections. The Seven Party Alliance has accused the Maoists of intimidating the voters," he said.
International orgzanisations, which went to Nepal to supervise the elections, said the elections were not fair. According to him, Nepal was heading towards anarchy.
Jaswant said Indo-Chinese relations have not been the same as it was during the time Vajpayee. He regretted the poor show of the Olympics flame during the Indian leg of its tour.
When asked if India could be only a secular nation? "What else it can be," he shot back pointing out the number of people living in India and the different religions they belonged to.
He asked the UPA government to change its stand on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, rather than put pressure on the BJP and the Left parties to give up their stand and support the government's point of view.
He charged the UPA government of failing to project the Indian stand on Iraq issue, on Myanmar and a number of other issues including India-Afganistan and India-Pakistan.
Jaswant, who hails from Rajasthan, made a telling comment while talking about the causality figures in the Gujjar agitation, saying the death of one person is end of the world for someone.
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