PM for Peace with Pak, but It Needs to Act on Terror
Showing India’s willingness to make peace with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised to move “more than half way” on path to peace and harmony if Pakistan takes “strong and effective” measures to put to an end terrorism directed against India.
Speaking in the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha, Singh expressed hope that Pakistani leadership would show “courage, determination and statesmanship” to act against terror and “create an atmoshphere” for improvement of ties.
“It is in our vital interest to try again to make peace with Pakistan but it takes two hands to clap,” he said.
“We expect the government of Pakistan to take strong, effective and sustained action to prevent terrorism directed against India and use every means at its service to bring to justice the perpetrators of terror attacks, including the Mumbai attacks,” Singh said.
The prime minister said that there are some disturbing trends but India hopes government of Pakistan would create an atmosphere where the goal of peace could be achieved.
Singh said that it is in the interest of India, which is living in a neighbourhood of “great turbulence”, to ensure that peace and stability prevail in the region.
“India cannot realise its ambitions unless there is peace, prosperity and stability in South Asia as a whole. If our neighbourhood is suffering from instability and turbulence, it has a direct bearing on our evolution as a democratic polity committed to the sustained growth and development,” the Prime Minister said.
