950806

India ready

for dialogue

with Pakistan,

says Rao

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao has said India was ready for a dialogue with Pakistan on all issues but said he does not know when it could take place.

Talking to Indian journalists accompanying him on his four-day visit to Malaysia on board the special flight on way back to Delhi on Saturday, Rao said with Pakistan there was something that could always take place. "I can't predict if it will take place and when it will take place," he added.

He claimed earlier discussions with former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif did not yield results and added India's offer for dialogue was always there, newspapers reported on Sunday.

On differences between various autonomy formulae on the Kashmir issue, Rao said all ideas and suggestions being made would be looked into.

Rao, who only a few days back called the situation in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir as "grim", now boasted of elections. "... I am talking to the leaders, and we take appropriate decisions."

However, he did not give the details of leaders as almost all Kashmiri leaders, who are counted by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, have more than once declared that they cannot go against the "wishes" of the people who are not ready to accept any solution except right of self-determination as promised to them through United Nations resolutions.

The All-Party Hurriyat Conference, broad-based mass organization of the people of Kashmir, had opposed New Delhi's move to impose elections, saying days for elections or selections are over. Now New Delhi must give up its harping of Kashmir as integral part of India and must make efforts for plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir under United Nations, it added, " come what may, Kashmiris would not accept any solution short of right of self-determination", the Hurriyat Conference had declared recently.

On Sunday, even Syed Ahmad Shah Geelani, a prominent Hurriyat leader, told "Aap-ki-Adaalat" on Zee-TV that India was responsible for whatever is going on in Jammu and Kashmir. It is time now for India to realize the ground realities and give up its rigidity on Kashmir and go for plebiscite early instead of talking about elections. All attempts to organize polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be opposed by the people, he warned.