A still recuperating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to intervene and ask national security advisor MK Narayanan to put matters to an end after remarks made by him in a interview to a news channel, threatened to turn into a larger controversy, both internationally as well as on the domestic front.
Narayanan, who issued a curious clarification on Wednesday and expectedly put the blame on the media, triggered a controversy after he contradicted external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in the interview saying that Pakistan had already replied to the dossier, which India had sent on the Mumbai attacks. Mukherjee has maintained that there has not been any word officially from Islamabad. The national security advisor also created a stir by his rather casual remark about the new US administration in which he said that Barack Obama would be ?barking up the wrong tree? if he linked Kashmir issue with the turmoil in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
A short statement issued by the government on Wednesday said that the NSA has ?clarified that references made during the course of an interview, were answers to specific questions put by the interviewer?. It further said that ?selective quotes taken out of context from the detailed answers have tended to give a distorted idea of what was actually said?.
Top government sources indicated that the clarification came after the NSA on Tuesday evening was summoned by the PM, who is still recuperating from his bypass surgery and not meeting visitors yet. It was drafted by the NSA himself and released after being approved by both the PM as well as the external affairs minister.
The sources said that the PM was particularly upset about NSA’s remarks on the Obama administration and that he was against the issue ballooning into another unnecessary diplomatic controversy. ?It is further clarified that the underlying theme of the reply to the question on Indo-US relations was the high expectation India had from the Obama Administration with a hope being expressed that it would be possible for India to make the new administration appreciate India’s positions and views on the region, including Kashmir,? the clarification said.
Narayanan’s retreat now also means that Mukherjee’s stand that Pakistan had not got back yet on the Mumbai attack dossiers is the official word. In the interview to Karan Thapar, Narayanan had asserted that Pakistan had reverted to India. ?What I am aware of is that after the receipt of the dossier by Pakistan, the Pakistan government has reverted to us and asked number of questions to which answers are being provided…. I presume they are yet to receive replies to the second set of queries they have made,? the NSA had said.
However, Mukherjee contradicted the NSA and had said, ?That he has said in his own way. The fact of the matter is that after they (Pakistan) received material from us, we have not received any official communication about the progress of investigation conducted by them.?