New Delhi:
Congress MP Manish Tewari on Friday expressed misgivings about the appeal by 117 eminent personalities from India and Pakistan to restart dialogue and re-open diplomatic channels. Pointing to Pakistan’s long history of supporting terrorism and India’s past attempts at establishing peace, he told NDTV: “The fundamental question is – ‘dialogue at what cost?'”
“From 1991, whether it was the government of Narasimha Rao or HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral or Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh or, now, Narendra Modi… each has persevered to engage with Pakistan. We have had comprehensive dialogue, backchannel conversations… but every time we’ve tried, Pak has retaliated with a terror attack,” he said.
Underlining the vast “military-jihadi” complex built by Islamabad over the years, the opposition leader also asked: “Under these circumstances, has Pak given any verifiable guarantee it will dismantle that infrastructure of terror?”
“President (Pervez) Musharraf gave that commitment publicly after the Parliament attack… but subsequently, when Prime Minister Vajpayee went to Islamabad (for a summit in January 2004), that commitment was retracted.”
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Similar commitments were made, and withdrawn, he said, to prime ministers Singh and Modi.
“Every time Pak has come up short. So the questions are, a) what is it that you (the 117 signatories in particular) want to talk about? And b) do you really want to engage with Pak with this spectre of terror hanging over our heads?”
Tewari also recalled the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025.
“Ultimately, howsoever well-intentioned these individuals may be, and most have engaged with Pak in their professional capacities, if they go back over the decades, they will understand the nature of the beast.”
The Congress leader said the Indian government’s position had always been clear, and became clearer still after the Pahalgam attack, when the Indus Waters Treaty was suspended.
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Asked about the timing of the letter – which came as Islamabad, which relies heavily on the Indus and its tributaries, steps up diplomatic pressure to have water-sharing reinstated – Tewari said: “…terror and talks cannot go hand-in-hand… blood and water can’t flow together. India will not make a distinction between terrorists and the masters who orchestrate these attacks.”
“There are two billion people who call South Asia home and want peace,” he said, “But ultimately dialogue with the gun of terror pointed at our heads. I don’t think that is possible.”
The Indian government and people, he said, need to make a “fundamental assessment” about what was needed from their Pak counterparts, beginning with a stop to the export of terror.
