India on Friday rejected Pakistan's claim that it was in agreement with it that Home Secretary G K Pillai's remarks regarding ISI role in Mumbai attacks were uncalled for.
"At no point during the talks, by no means the External Affairs Minister (S M Krishna) expressed agreement with Foreign Minister (Shah Mahmood) Qureshi's opinion," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.
She was replying to a question about Qureshi's claim at the press conference yesterday that Pillai's remarks had vitiated atmosphere and during the talks "both of us were of the opinion that it was uncalled for".
Asked why Krishna did not rebut Qureshi's claim at the press conference, Rao said there were a "huge number" of journalists and in the "pell-mell of to-and-fro queries", it "may have just happened that the EAM did not react." Rao, while talking TV channels, said Krishna gave "absolutely" no indication that he had the same opinion as Qureshi on Pillai.
She defended Pillai's remarks, saying he was "perfectly within his rights" to state the Indian position. Pillai had said that ISI controlled the Mumbai attacks from "beginning to end". On talks between Krishna and Qureshi, Rao said Pakistan wanted to restore the entire spectrum of issues.
"We are not against resumption of dialogue. We have never said that. We want a serious dialogue, we want a sustained dialogue, we want to have a meaningful dialogue but we have to start in a graduated way," she said. PTI
