Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marked India’s Independence Day on Sunday 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.
The prime minister gave his annual address from the ramparts of the Red Fort in the Indian capital, which had been turned into a virtual fortress with nearly 80 000 police and troops guarding against a possible militant strike.
“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 added.
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.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the division of the sub-continent in 1947 and their relationship has always been beset by mutual mistrust.
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.
Risk of attacks
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.
The United States warned in an advisory last week of a risk of attacks by Islamic militants in Indian cities.
Security was especially tight in Indian Kashmir where protests against Indian rule have claimed nearly 60 lives in the past two months.
Thousands were out on the streets of the Kashmiri summer capital, Srinagarm again on Sunday, 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.
“I believe that India’s democracy has the generosity and flexibility to be able to address the concerns of any area or group in the country,” he added.
Addressing the “serious challenge” posed by an increasingly violent Maoist insurgency which has spread across a large swathe of eastern and central India, Singh urged the rebels to lay down their arms.
“I once again appeal to [Maoists] to abjure violence and come for talks,” he said, adding that the security forces would “deal firmly with those who resort to violence”.
‘Sham’
In the Maoist-affected central state of Chhattisgarh, rebels had put up posters ordering people to boycott independence day celebrations, calling them a “sham”.
Vowing to build an India “in which every citizen would have a stake”, Singh stressed the need to increase agricultural production and set up a food safety net that would allow “no citizen to go hungry”.
Singh defended his government’s recent decision to hike fuel prices, but acknowledged public discontent over the impact on already rampant food price rises.
“It is obvious that any person or institution cannot spend more than his income over a long period of time,” he said, promising that reducing inflation was a top government priority. — AFP