The BJP today condemned the lack of courtesy shown to Indian Home minister Rajnath Singh by Pakistan during his visit to Islamabad to attend the conference of home/interior ministers of SAARC countries.
Terming the behaviour of Pakistan as reprehensive, BJP MP and former Union Home Secretary R K Singh said that what Nawaz Sharif government did was ‘unprecedented’.
"This is unprecedented, this has never happened before. Whenever there is a multilateral conference you don't have media gags, in fact the entire behaviour of Pakistan is condemnable and reprehensible. You are hosting the Home Ministers and you must behave accordingly. I think their lack of courtesy was reprehensive," R K singh said.
Earlier, Rajnath Singh told the Parliament that he went to Pakistan for delivering a firm message on terrorism at the SAARC conference and he did that.
The Home minister also confirmed that Indian media personnel from DD, ANI and PTI were not allowed entry inside the venue.
"I did not see whether my speech was covered live or not. The media personnel from DD, ANI and PTI reporters who had come from India were not allowed to enter. I will not comment whether Pakistan was right or wrong in not allowing coverage of my speech at the SAARC summit. About the 'blackout', I will need to ask the Ministry of External Affairs about protocol of past occasions. I have no knowledge of the protocol of past occasions," Rajnath Singh said.
When asked to comment on why Pakistan’s interior minister Choudhary Nisar Ali Khan left the lunch that he himself had organised for SAARC ministers, Rajnath Singh said he has no grudges because he did not go there for lunch.
"I don't want to comment on how they treated me. The Home Minister did invite everyone at lunch, but went away after that. I also left then. I have no grudges as I wasn't there to have lunch. I did not go there to have lunch. I did not register any protest there," Singh said.
