Singh (top), Vajpayee

New Delhi, June 21: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has iterated that there is no role for a third party ? either as guarantor or mediator ? in Jammu and Kashmir.

He also stressed that India’s dialogue with Pakistan is based on its commitment to end cross-border terrorism, as outlined in the joint statement signed by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on January 6, 2004.

Singh made these points in his reply to a letter sent on June 15 by Vajpayee who suggested that the Indo-Pak peace process had become “Kashmir-centric”.

The Prime Minister’s letter, dated June 20, said the centrality of India’s position on ending cross-border terrorism was most recently reflected in the joint statement put out after his meeting with Musharraf in April.

Vajpayee had alleged that the UPA government seemed to be “allowing Pakistan to slip out of the commitments made in the January 6, 2004, statement”.

Singh replied: “We are fully conscious of the issues raised in your letter. It is our endeavour to take the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan forward while ensuring that India’s vital interests are fully safeguarded.”

The Prime Minister also repeated that boundaries will not be redrawn.

Responding to Vajpayee’s apprehensions about the visit of Hurriyat Conference leaders to Pakistan earlier this month, Singh said their travel to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was cleared “on the basis of agreed procedures”.

He conceded that Pakistan’s decision to invite them to visit Islamabad and other cities had violated “an understanding on these procedures reached” between the neighbours, but disagreed with Vajpayee’s statement that the Hurriyat visit was “mishandled” by Delhi.

“Passports were issued to those Hurriyat leaders who did not possess Indian passports and made a request for the issue of such documents. It would not, therefore, be correct to state that the authorities on our side had mishandled the visit of the Hurriyat,” Singh said.

The Prime Minister said the Hurriyat was a group “outside the electoral process” but added his government was willing to enter into a dialogue with such groups if they agreed to “abjure the path of violence”.

“Nothing in our actions in the last 12 months has compromised our adherence to this principle,” Singh claimed.

Responding to the Prime Minister’s missive, the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, asked the government what it had done and what it intended to do about the violation of agreement on the Hurriyat visit.

In rare praise for Vajpayee, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh also lent its voice to the BJP’s protest and questioned Singh’s capability, adds PTI.

Spokesperson Ram Madhav commended Vajpayee for writing to the Prime Minister. In the same breath, he said the Sangh would not give up the “dream of akhand Bharat (greater India)”.

BJP president L.K. Advani had in Pakistan dismissed the idea.