Cong steers clear of Krishna's disapproval of Pillai remarks

The Congress today steered clear of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna's disapproval of the comments by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on the eve of Indo-Pak talks.

The Congress today steered clear of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna's disapproval of the comments by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on the eve of Indo-Pak talks.

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"It is essentially a governance issue. If at all, the Minister of External Affairs has said something, it is for the government to respond to it if it considers so essential," Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

Krishna has said his whole visit to Islamabad was "under-pinned" by the remarks, the timing of which was "very unfortunate."

Clearly unhappy with Pillai's statement about the involvement of ISI in Mumbai terror attacks, a day before his visit to Pakistan, Krishna said if he was the Home Secretary, he would not have spoken about details of the Pakistani-American David Headley revelations.

Congress had earlier said there was nothing wrong in what Pillai had said and the Home Secretary had merely stated the factual position.

The Congress had also described as ridiculous any attempt by Pakistan to equate Home Secretary G K Pillai's remarks with Jamaat-ud-Dawah(JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed's anti-India hate speeches.

The party had also dismissed criticism of Krishna, asserting that he "fulfilled" the mandate on talks with Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi and conducted himself with utmost dignity and restraint.