PM Modi denies NSG issue mishandled

In the wake of India’s failed NSG membership bid at Seoul last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday told a TV channel that there had been “no mishandling” of the issue and that dialogue with China on India’s membership to NSG would continue.

Exuding confidence that India would eventually get membership of the NSG, he said that he had told Chinese President Xi Jinping at Tashkent what India’s interests were.

“The most important thing is that we can speak to China eye-to-eye and put forth India’s interests in the most unambiguous manner,” he said.

Dismissing criticism that the handling of the NSG issue had drawn, he said that it was a result of the excessive “hype” generated by his recent “successful” visit to the United States.

Speaking on Indo-Pak ties, the PM, describing peace as the “supreme objective”, said that overtures for friendship would not be at the cost of national interest. Making it clear that Indian security forces have full freedom to take whatever measures on the border that they need to, he said, “Whatever has to be done at the (dialogue) table, we will do and whatever has to be done at the border, the jawans (soldiers) will do it.”

In a barely-veiled reference to the Pakistan Army, the PM, when asked about where he would draw the Lakshman Rekha vis-à-vis Pakistan, said, “To whom do we talk to decide about the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ the elected government or with other actors ”

Mr Modi added that while the world is praising India, Pakistan is finding it difficult to respond to India’s peace efforts.

“If we had become an obstacle, then we would have had to explain to the world... The world knows our intentions. Like on the issue of terrorism, the world never bought India’s theory on terrorism. They would sometime dismiss it by saying that it’s your law and order problem. Today the world has to accept what India has been saying about terrorism,” the PM said.

On India’s efforts to secure membership to various international bodies, the Prime Minister said, “It is true that in our tenure SCO has been achieved, MTCR membership has been achieved,” and added that a coordinated effort for India’s NSG membership has begun on a positive note.

“We do not have one problem with China, we have a whole lot of problems pending with China Slowly and steadily efforts are on to find solutions to them one-by-one,” he said.

The PM also said he treated ties with US and Russia with “equal respect” and that the same was the case regarding India’s ties with both Saudi Arabia and Iran.