PM blunts oppn charge on Pak talks

The Congress heaved a sigh of relief after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed in Parliament that the government would not have a dialogue, let alone a composite dialogue with Pakistan, unless it acted against terror.

The Congress heaved a sigh of relief after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed in Parliament that the government would not have a dialogue, let alone a composite dialogue with Pakistan, unless it acted against terror.

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The party will now draw its sustenance from what Congress president Sonia Gandhi says at the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party on Thursday.

There has been some unease in the party at the delinking of action against terror from the composite dialogue and the reference to Balochistan in the India-Pakistan joint statement on July 16.

Privately, Congress leaders have maintained that while the first issue can be handled by re-linking action against terror with a composite dialogue, it will be more difficult to explain the inclusion of Balochistan.

But for the moment, there is a sense of satisfaction that the prime minister had blunted the Opposition’s charge on the issue.