India rowed back on Monday after voicing readiness to look at all options for a solution to the long-running dispute over Kashmir, balking at Pakistan's suggestion that the region could be demilitarised. "Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and therefore this question of deployment of troops in our own country is not a subject matter of discussion with outside agencies," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
Speaking at a news conference in the Netherlands after meeting senior European Union officials, Singh was also dismissive of ideas floated informally by President Pervez Musharraf during an Iftar party last month.
"If you are referring to what General Musharraf said at an Iftar party, well I don't consider it as a proposal," he said. "When we receive any formal proposals we will, I think, react to that in an appropriate manner."
Musharraf's suggestions include demilitarising Kashmir and looking at options for its future, including independence, joint control or some form of UN control.
Singh's comments in the Hague contrasted with the tone of an interview he gave to the Financial Times, which on Monday quoted him as saying he was willing to "look at all options to think about a new chapter and a new beginning".
They were also more in line with New Delhi's official response to Pakistani proposals aired in the media to end the dispute over Kashmir.
Singh repeated India's demand that Pakistan end cross-border infiltration, as Musharraf had pledged when he met Singh's predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee, last January.
"So long as Pakistan abides by its commitments as given in January 2004 we are prepared to engage in a serious dialogue with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues, and that also applies to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
"President Musharraf has been realistic enough to say that solutions (on Kashmir) that are not acceptable to India should be out and solutions that are not acceptable to Pakistan should also be out," he told the Financial Times in Delhi prior to his three-day visit to The Hague.
Singh described as a "very important lesson" the European Union integration model for strengthening economic relations between India and Pakistan.
"It is our honest belief that in relationship between India and Pakistan if a durable solution is to be found, it cannot be imposed from outside," he said, adding that "it has to be a solution in which both countries genuinely believe that bilateral negotiations are the best means to resolve the outstanding problems."
The Prime Minister said he believed that when dealing with seemingly intractable problems one has to be confident of one's own sincerity to trying to find a solution.
Pointing out that the two countries were dealing with "complicated issues", he said: "There is such a thing as history behind us, and there are also realities on the ground. Taking all this into account, we are willing, I think, to look at all options; to think about a new chapter and a new beginning between our two countries."
About the proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan, Singh recalled that in his joint statement with President Musharraf, the two leaders had expressed their joint interest in the development of this pipeline and "it could be an important factor" in de-linking this from progress on other issues.
The Prime Minister said that "a strong, stable and prosperous Pakistan" was in India's interest.
"We don't want any of our relations to enter the category of a failed state. We have a vested interest in Pakistan's prosperity," he said.
Observing that it was a good moment for movement, the Prime Minister said: "The atmosphere is right and we must build on that atmosphere to begin a new chapter in the relationship between the two counties."
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