NEW DELHI:“All of our prime ministers have done their best to improve relations with our neighbours, but this neighbour never learns,”Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singhsaid while informing the Indian parliament of his visitto Islamabad for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Interior Ministers’ meeting on Thursday.
His statement referring to Pakistan came amid chuckles and laughter in the Indian parliament a day after his intense war of words with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar at the SAARC meet.In a response to Nisar’s remarks about the Indian violation of Kashmiri’s human rights, Rajnath told the Indian parliament that “Pakistan is the biggest violator of human rights”, a private Indian TV channel reported.
Singh said that he had skipped a luncheon meeting as he had not gone there to have lunch. He said, “It is true that Nisar invited everyone for lunch. But then he left in his car. I also left. I have no complaints or grudges as I had not gone there to have lunch,” he said.
According to the Indian media reports, he said that journalists accompanying him were not allowed to cover his speech. “I will not comment on whether Pakistan was right or wrong in not allowing coverage. I did not register any protest there. I will need to ask the foreign ministry about protocol of past occasions,” he said.
The Press Trust of India quoting a government source said that it was a standard SAARC practice for the host country’s opening statements to be made public and open to the media, while the rest of the proceedings are in camera, which allows for a frank discussion of issues.
The Press Trust of India said that an interior ministry official in Islamabad had also said that there was no such blackout of Singh’s speech as none of the speeches of participating ministers was shown.
