‘Agra summit failed due to Indian official’

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf blamed an official at the ministry of external affairs for the failure of the Agra summit between himself and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf blamed an official at the ministry of external affairs for the failure of the Agra summit between himself and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

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Musharraf, however, maintained that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he had “made considerable progress” on the Kashmir and the Sir Creek and Siachen issues.

“There was someone from the foreign ministry sitting there named Katju, he may still be there... he created a lot of hurdles,’’ Musharraf said adding Vajpayee and he wanted the Agra summit to succeed and had made efforts to work out a joint statement.

Vivek Katju, presently secretary west in the external affairs ministry was then joint-secretary in-charge of Pakistan Afghanistan and Iran division.

Those who are familiar with negotiations at the Agra summit recall that the initial draft for the joint statement had mention of Kashmir as the core issue, but the issue of terrorism didn’t find an equal mention.

Katju, sources said, argued with the political leadership that such a position if it comes out in the joint statement will be a deviation from India’s position on Kashmir and Pakistan’s role in fomenting terrorism.

“I told Vajpayee Saheb before leaving Agra, today you and I both have been humiliated because there is someone above us, sitting above us who can veto what we decided. I even said… that may be then I should have discussed with that individual who finally has the veto power... Whatever we were deciding is being rejected by somebody above us,” Musharraf said.

Musharraf said the relations between India and Pakistan made progress under Manmohan Singh. “India and Pakistan made real progress under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Under Vajpayee, we were supposed to sign just a joint statement at Agra. But under Manmohan Singh, we made considerable progress on Sir Creek, Siachen and Kashmir.”