Stating that New Delhi has credible evidence that a portion of US aid to Pakistan is being used against India, Congress party has asked the Obama Administration to have an effective monitoring mechanism of its civilian and military assistance to Islamabad.
"We are not against US aid to Pakistan at all," Congress spokesman Abhishek Sanghvi said in his key note address at a function organised here by the US India Business Council and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to felicitate visiting parliamentarians.
"But we are all concerned that there are no monitoring mechanisms of that aid, even though there are conditions that the aid cannot be used for any other purpose than supplied for. Yet we have credible evidence to show that part of that aid are being used for anti-India activities," Singhvi said.
In principle, US aid can't be used for anti-India activity, said Singhvi who is leading an all-party delegation of members of parliament to attend fourth India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme being organised annually by the Yale University in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Other important members of the delegation are Union Ministers of State Ajay Maken and Agatha Sangma; besides few Congressmen; others members from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Biju Janata Dal, All India Majlis-e Ittihad al-Muslim and others werealso present.
Besides attending classes on leadership at the Yale University, the delegation also had interaction with the FBI officials on counter-terrorism in New York, met Congressmen and officials of the Obama Administration including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"There are legitimate concerns of parliamentary groups like this, which is completely bipartisan and concerns of this group does not have the constraints of (Indian) Ambassador (to the US Meera) Shankar here or the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs). We are in that sense a relatively freer group," he said.