BJP says Pakistan not responding to India's peace initiatives

Srinagar: BJP today said its government at the Centre wants friendly relations with Pakistan, but there was no reciprocation to the peace overtures from the other side. “We want friendly relations with all the neighbouring countries including Pakistan. Over the last six months, we have tried our best to strengthen relations with them, but when there is no such response from the other side, the friendship cannot be strengthened, which is visible from the attack that happened today on the border. There are certain conditions and they have to cooperate,” party general secretary Ram Madhav told reporters in Srinagar.[caption id=“attachment_1825023” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Poll time. Reuters[/caption] Madhav said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was willing to open direct road connectivity between the Punjabs on the two sides of India-Pakistan border. “Modi has said ‘why not make South Asia a developmental model’. He is willing to open direct road connectivity between India and Pakistan Punjabs for better economic avenues. He has even said that there should be direct trade between India -Pakistan rather than carrying goods via Dubai to Pakistan,” he said. The BJP leader said his party was open to a post-poll alliance in Jammu and Kashmir in case it fell short of getting an outright majority to form a government on its own. “We are sure we will form the government on our own. In case we fall short of majority, we will take support from our friends to form the next government in the state,” he said. Madhav said the political parties of the state lack a proper policy for the development of the state. “We want to build J&K jointly so that we can bring the peace and prosperity to the state. The political parties here have nothing new to offer and lack vision for development of the state,” he said. Terming the ruling National Conference (NC) manifesto for the assembly polls a “carbon copy” of the earlier manifestos, the BJP leader said, “This big party has repeated the manifesto of 2008 Assembly elections. They have failed to deliver what they had promised in 2008.” On the reports of the party skipping the contentious issue of Article 370 in its manifesto, Madhav said “our primary focus is development of the state to rid the people of the poverty”. “Modi has a vision for the development of Jammu and Kashmir. That is the reason that party released vision document instead of manifesto,” he said. Madhav said the party, if voted to power, would focus on job creation, development of industries, and turning Srinagar into a tourist city. “Every citizen of the state would be equal partner for the development of the state. Modi will develop the state with the support of the people here. Modi is committed to introduce a quality higher education, including medical and engineering so that students do not need to move outside,” he said. He appealed to the people to help the BJP in strengthening its base in the state. He alleged the political parties in the state were seeking rehabilitation of the flood victims only for their political gains. “Had flood hit after the elections, nobody would have been talking about the flood victims,” he said. Responding to another question about Indian prisoners including fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails, Singh said that according to the list provided by the Pakistani authorities on July 1 under the bilateral Consular Access Agreement, there are 48 civil prisoners and 247 fishermen believed to be Indians in Pakistani jails. “Out of the 48 civil prisoners, the Indian nationality status in respect of 24 civil prisoners has been confirmed. The other 24 civil prisoners are mentally challenged. Of the 247 fishermen, the Indian nationality status in respect of 210 fishermen has been confirmed so far while one fishermen was not found to be Indian during the verification. “Nationality status confirmation is under process in respect of the remaining 36 fishermen. Since the mentally challenged prisoners were not able to provide details about themselves during consular access, their available details (names along with their photographs) have been placed on the website of the High Commission of India, Islamabad to help in their expeditious identification,” the minister said. He said that the government regularly takes up with the Pakistan authorities the issue of early release and repatriation of all such prisoners as well as providing regular consular access to them. He added that India is also monitoring the status of all Indian prisoners lodged in Pakistani jails and the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee consisting of retired judges from both countries visits jail in both the countries to ensure human treatment and expeditious release of prisoners including fishermen, who have completed their prison term. “Due to government’s efforts, 390 fishermen were released by Pakistan by 2013 and 150 fishermen were released by Pakistan in 2014 so far,” the minister in reply to another question. PTI