Natwar charges NDA with Pak obsession

In a veiled criticism of the NDA, External

Affairs Minister Natwar Singh today said the peace initiatives with Pakistan have not lost pace even though the UPA Government has moved away from the previous regime’s Pakistan-centric policy to one of befriending all neighbours.

Singh called the NDA’s policy on Pakistan ‘‘energetic summersaults’’. He told the Rajya Sabha that he was planning a visit to Islamabad in February, soon after the next round of secretary-level talks. Before that he would propose to his Pakistani counterpart in Dhaka, during the SAARC summit, that the two countries could jointly work on the upgradation of the proposed railway link. Singh said India was even ready for transshipment of passengers to the border to see this link open on Gandhi Jayanti. ‘‘I will now formally tell Shaukat Aziz that we would jointly work on the railway line since India has all the expertise.’’