Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz's remarks that Kashmir remains on the agenda and that "more evidence" is needed on the Mumbai attack will not affect India's engagement with that country after they agreed to the revival of the stalled dialogue process.
Giving this assessment, sources said today that the Indian government will go by the spirit of the joint statement that laid out a roadmap for restarting the dialogue process after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the Russian city of Ufa last Friday.
Downplaying the statement by Aziz, who is Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs, the sources said he did not talk about anything which affected "actionable propositions" agreed upon during Modi-Sharif talks.
Observing that Aziz's comments did not reflect a U-turn by Pakistan after the Ufa talks, the sources said it would be unfair to make such judgements when the process for engagement agreed to between the two premiers including talks between National Security Advisers of the two countries is yet to start.
Describing the joint statement issued after Modi-Sharif talks on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit as a "considered, honest, accurate and reasonable summary of the substance" of the talks, the sources said for India what Islamabad tells it is important and not what they convey to the domestic audience.
They said India was looking forward to implementation of the decisions agreed upon at the meeting and added that it was Modi's idea to have a joint media interaction by foreign secretaries of both the countries after the talks.
Three days after Ufa talks, Aziz yesterday held a press conference in Islamabad in which he asked for "more evidence and information" from India on the Mumbai attack case and asserted that talks cannot take place without Kashmir being on the agenda in what was seen as a turnaround by Pakistan.
The sources said Aziz had made the statement ostensibly for the domestic audience and called it a "kind of a mix and match exercise" as the comments included known Pakistani positions along with what he claimed to have been figured at the talks between the two Prime Ministers.
"The fact that he (Aziz) is offering additional comments obviously speaks of a certain situation there," the sources said, adding no one should "pre-judge" possible outcome of a process which is yet to start.
The sources said Modi had raised the Mumbai attack trial and as it believed Pakistan has enough evidence to punish mastermind of the strike and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
The government's position is that two specific formats for talks -- one at NSA level and the other at DGMO level-- were agreed upon and Aziz did not say anything denouncing what has been decided in Ufa.
"Sartaj Aziz did not say I will not come to New Delhi to discuss terrorism with Doval as we agreed," the sources said, adding he is making comments from his perspective considering the domestic situation.
