The Congress today skirted the issue of Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging the Pakistan Army chief during his visit to Islamabad by terming it a "non-issue" and said the real thing is the relationship between India and Pakistan and the absence of a policy towards the country.
The party also accused the government of raking up the issue to obfuscate its own lack of policy towards Pakistan.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make public his letter to new Pakistan premier Imran Khan and clear his stand on whether the government has expressed willingness to resume dialogue despite the red lines put in place in the past four years.
"Navjot Singh Sidhu's decision to go to Pakistan in his personal capacity is actually a non-issue. The real issue is the relationship between India and Pakistan, is the impact of the India-Pakistan stand-off on the larger South Asia and the complete absence of the BJP government's policy towards Pakistan," he told reporters when asked about Sidhu defending his action of hugging the Pak Army chief.
Cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu visited Pakistan last week to attend the swearing-in of Imran Khan as Pakistan's prime minister. The Punjab minister today defended hugging the Pakistan Army chief saying he got caught in the moment after hearing that Sikh pilgrims may get access to a shrine across the border.
Tewari alleged that the BJP government's policy towards Pakistan has "swung from the sublime to the ridiculous" and there has not been any policy till date.
"In the last four years, the NDA-BJP government has no policy towards Pakistan and it has been nothing except U-turns, somersaults and 180-degree turns," he said.
"Navjot Singh Sidhu is not the issue. The issue is the relationship between India and Pakistan. And the reality is that India-Pakistan relations are an extremely complicated and a convulated piece of work," the Congress spokesperson said.
Accusing the BJP government of raking up Sidhu's issue, Tewari said, "There has been an attempt, a concerned attempt by the government and its friendly news dissemination outlets in order to try and obfuscate this government's lack of a policy on Pakistan. That is the real issue."
He said since this question has been raised, it is important to ask the prime minister, "since he has written a letter to prime minister Imran Khan where there seems to be a suggestion on resumption of a dialogue, that all red lines which was put in place over the past four years by the NDA-BJP Government... So what has happened to all those red lines"?
Tewari said that this government had claimed there will be no talks till terror emanating from Pakistan does not stop and till the trial of 26/11 perpetrators is not resumed, till Lakhvi is not put back into prison and till Jamaat-Ud-Dawa had Hafiz Saeed is not incarcerated.
When he was told that the government claimed there was no suggestion to resume dialogue, the Congress leader said, "The difficulty with this government is, it only speaks through sources on uncomfortable questions. This government does not have the courage, the conviction of courage to upfront address issues of national concern."
Tewari said there are two narratives, one by Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that india has made overtures towards Pakistan to resume dialogue and on the other "sources" in India which saying that no such offer has been made.
"So why doesn't the prime minister make the letter which he has written to Imran Khan public. We don't think his congratulatory letter would have something which would have implications on our national security," he said.
"I think, it would be appropriate that the letter be put it in the public space so than the whole thing can be clarified. May I also add that I don't see the government doing so," the Congress spokesperson said.
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