Jaswant Singh, former external affairs minister, expressed dissatisfaction and grave concern at the absence of an itegrated foreign policy vision on the part of the present govenment.
Addressing a press conference after the national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party adopted a resolution on foreign policy, Singh said that in the absence of minister of state for external affairs the government has made mistakes in the realm of international relations, which have already cost "the past Congress regimes and will surely do so again under the United Progressive Alliance".
He attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for giving orders to vote in favour of International Atomic Energy Agency supervision in respect of nuclear installations in Iran. "The critic of Indian foreign policy became its advocate overnight. In the middle of the night, he passed orders to vote in favour of the resolution and the Indian ambassador in Tehran was not informed about the decision," he charged.
He cautioned that the presence of United States troops in Pakistan, Afganistan and Iraq are dangerous pointers. "The developments in our neighbourhood are have security concerns forn India. Turmoil and conflict persists in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh is crucible of terrorism, fast emerging as an alternative base for proxy war against India: and as the home of a variety of terrorist groups," he said.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who left Mumbai on Tuesday morning to attend the cremation of his relative in Gwalior, after attending the session for a brief period said that India needs to exercise restraint while extending the hand of friendship towards Pakistan.
