BJP says FS should quit if ’guilty’ but points finger at PMO

The BJP on Thursday demanded that the Foreign Secretary quit his post if he was “guilty” of the “bad drafting” of the Indo-Pak statement in Egypt and also pointed a finger at the Prime Minister and his office saying they could have been responsible for it.

The BJP on Thursday demanded that the Foreign Secretary quit his post if he was “guilty” of the “bad drafting” of the Indo-Pak statement in Egypt and also pointed a finger at the Prime Minister and his office saying they could have been responsible for it.

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“If it is a case of bad drafting as the Foreign Secretary has said then clearly he also has to explain who is responsible for this. If he is responsible, then he should plead guilty, apologise to the country and quit his post-- that I made a mistake and I am going,” senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told reporters outside Parliament.

Responding to criticism of the joint statement issued from Egypt after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon had on July 21 said, “One can argue how good or bad the drafting was...you can say it is bad drafting, but the meaning is clear.”

But Sinha on Thursday said that if the Foreign Secretary is saying it is a bad drafting, “it means it is drafted by the PMO. I think Prime Minister and Prime Minister’s Office are responsible for it (drafting).... Foreign policy is now under PMO’s control. Foreign Minitry has no contribution to it.”