Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marked India’s independence day yesterday with a warning to Pakistan that a recent resumption of dialogue would go nowhere unless Islamabad cracks down on militancy.
In a wide-ranging speech that addressed domestic issues of high inflation and religious tolerance, Singh also called for an end to a cycle of violent separatist protests in Indian Kashmir and urged Maoist rebels to lay down their arms and begin talks.
He gave his annual address from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Dehli, which had been turned into a virtual fortress with about 80,000 police and troops guarding against a possible militant strike.
PHOTO: EPA
“As far as Pakistan is concerned, we expect from them that they would not let their territory be used for acts of terrorism against India,” Singh said.
“If this is not done, we cannot progress far in our dialogue with Pakistan,” he said.
India suspended a peace dialogue with Pakistan in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives, and the two countries have only recently begun to explore a resumption of structured talks.
India accuses Pakistan of failing to crack down sufficiently on militant groups that operate from bases on its territory, such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which New Delhi blames for the Mumbai carnage.
Pakistan marks its independence a day earlier than India, but the government there scrapped official celebrations on Saturday out of deference to the millions of people affected by the worst floods in the country’s history.
In New Delhi, police shut down public car parks, closed markets and declared a temporary no-fly zone to prevent aerial attacks on the main independence day venue.
Security was especially tight in Indian Kashmir where protests against Indian rule have claimed about 60 lives in the past two months.
Thousands were out on the streets of the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar again yesterday, which separatist leaders wanted marked as a “black day.”
Regretting the loss of life, Singh said his government stood ready to talk with all parties in Kashmir once calm had been restored.
“The years of violence should now end. Such violence would not benefit anyone,” he said.
Addressing the “serious challenge” posed by an increasingly violent Maoist insurgency, which has spread across a large tract of eastern and central India, Singh urged the rebels to lay down their arms.
In the Maoist-affected areas, rebels had put up posters ordering people to boycott independence day celebrations, calling them a “sham.”
Pointing to strong economic growth despite the global financial crisis, Singh said India with its vibrant democracy had become “an example for many other countries to emulate ... Our country is viewed with respect all over the world. Our views command international attention,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that economic prosperity had yet to trickle down to India’s masses who still suffer from “persistent poverty, hunger and disease.”
Singh promised to build an India “in which every citizen would have a stake and to set up a food safety net that would allow “no citizen to go hungry.”
He defended the recent decision to hike fuel prices, but acknowledged public discontent over the impact on already rampant food price rises, saying: “We are making every possible effort to tackle this problem.”
Singh also promised a successful Delhi Commonwealth Games.
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