Congress asks Modi to make letter to Imran public
New Delhi, Aug 21 : Terming Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan a non-issue since he went there in his personal capacity, the party on Tuesday turned to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him as to what happened to the red lines of 'no-talks' till terror from Pakistan stops.
It said the PM's letter to his newly elected counterpart Imran Khan was to "obfuscate this government's lack of policy."
Modi has written to Khan saying India desires "constructive engagement" with Islamabad. The Congress has demanded that the Prime Minister should make the letter public to clear the air about multiple narratives about 'resumtion of dialogue' with Pakistan.
The party said India and Pakistan relations are extremely complicated. "Navjot Singh Sidhu is not the issue," it emphasized.
"The real issue is the relationship between India and Pakistan, the impact of the India-Pakistan stand-off on South Asia and the complete absence of the NDA-BJP government's policy towards Pakistan," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.
"There seems to be a suggestion of resumption of a dialogue despite all the red lines," he said. "These lines mean that there will be no talks till terror from Pakistan stops, till the trial of the 26/11 perpetrators is not resumed, till Lakhvi is not put back in the prison, till Hafiz Saeed, who heads the Jamat-ud-Dawa, is not incarcerated," he said.
"So there has been a concerted attempt by the government to try and obfuscate this. That is the real issue," he added.
On government contradicting Pakistan's foreign minister's claim on PM's offer on India's overtures for talks with Pakistan, Tewari said: "The difficulty with this government is, it only speaks through sources on uncomfortable questions."
"You have a second narrative on ‘sources in India' which says that no such offer has been made. So why does not the Prime minister make the letter public, which he has written to Prime Minister Imran Khan?" he asked.
"I think, it would be appropriate that the letter be put it in the public space so that the whole thing can be clarified. And may I also add, I don't see the government doing so," he added.
Tewai said it was not the responsibility of the Congress to suggest a policy. "We conceptualized policy and implemented it for 10 years while we were in government," he said.
"The NDA-BJP government has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous on their Pakistan policy," he said.
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Time will reveal if leadership change in Karnataka is imminent: Shivakumar
Hubballi (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said time will tell if the state will see a new CM after the by-elections to two assembly seats.
Bypolls for the Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly constituencies will be held on April 9. The polls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa, respectively.
"Why are you worried about it? There is no need to make it an issue... I have already said that time will answer it," Shivakumar told reporters in response to a question about whether he would become the CM and if there would be a leadership change after the bypolls.
Responding to statements by some leaders, including Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, that incumbent Siddaramaiah will be CM till 2028, he said, "I'm not ready to comment on statements made by others. I'm the party president... either the CM or I will have to speak on this matter. Other than what the two of us say, the rest is immaterial."
Asked about the secret behind his patience, Shivakumar replied, "Time will answer."
Recently, Siddaramaiah had said that the Congress government will remain in power for two more years and that he is the Chief Minister of the state.
The leadership tussle within the ruling party has intensified amid speculation about a possible change of chief minister after the Congress government completed the halfway mark of its five-year term on November 20, 2025.
The speculation has been fuelled by the reported "power-sharing" arrangement between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar at the time of government formation in 2023.
