War with Pak should be ‘last resort’ for India: Digvijaya

Panaji: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Saturday said war with Pakistan should be “the last resort” for India as both the countries are nuclear-armed.

“Both the countries (India and Pakistan) are nuclear-armed. Therefore, war should be the last resort (before India). All efforts should be made to negotiate and put pressure on Pakistan,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a Congress workers’ meeting here.

“What is happening is that even Russia, which was our consistent friend, is now doing exercises with Pakistan, which has never happened before in the past,” Singh said.

“These are the areas of concern which the BJP-led government should be looking at,” said the Congress general secretary.

He said what was happening in Kashmir was a “matter of concern for all of us”.

“The Congress party has always supported the government in power in matters of external and internal security. Now, the Congress party should plan a campaign to isolate Pakistan on the issue of terrorism,” Singh added.

He said the issue of terrorism was being discussed today at the UN General Assembly in New York.

“We have to identify and bring concrete proof of the involvement of Pakistan-based establishments in terror activities. Pakistan said it was Jaish-e-Mohammed who had done it (the Uri attack). Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Azhar Masood was set free by the NDA government in the Indian Airlines aircraft hijacking case. The Congress party never compromised with those involved in terrorist activities,” Singh said.

He said the BJP as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his tenure as the Gujarat chief minister, had made “aggressive” statements against former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

“But, Modi is doing the same thing as Singh now when he is in power,” Singh claimed.

PTI