NEW DELHI – There is no comparison between the Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir issues, India said on Monday, rejecting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s suggestion that New Delhi should show flexibility on the Kashmir issue as done in the case of Tibet during PM Vajpayee’s recent China visit.
“There is no similarity between Tibet and J and K. Our position that Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) is part of the territory of People’s Republic of China has been consistent for nearly five decades,” external affairs ministry spokesman told reporters here.
He was asked about Musharraf’s comments in an interview in an American newspaper that the “flexibility India has shown on Tibet is a welcome sign. One can only hope it happens in the case of Kashmir too.”
Commenting separately, minister of state for external affairs Digvijay Singh said “Kashmir is an integral part of India. There is no question about it”.
Singh said “I don’t know with what intention he (Musharraf) has said this”.
Musharraf told a Pakistani TV channel that “at Agra, Vajpayee and me had agreed that there could be no pace in the sub-continent without solution of Kashmir. I believe the Indian prime minister is a man of peace.”
The spokesman said “on J and K, the problem is precisely Pakistan refuses to recognise the political and legal reality that J and K is an integral part of India.”
“Clearly, therefore, the flexibility that President Musharraf referred to has to be shown by Pakistan”.
