Vajpayee perception needed to establish relations with Pakistan: Congress leader Soz

In a statement here this afternoon, former Union minister Soz, reacting to the statement of Minister of State (MoS) V Murleedharan in Parliament that onus was on Islamabad to create an atmosphere for a conducive atmosphere for dialogue, said: ''I could imagine that the present government had moved quite a far away from Vajpayee's path of conciliation, reconciliation and cordiality."

"Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whom I knew closely, was decidedly born out of the RSS womb, yet his approach to deal with the neighbourhood was uniquely pragmatic and workable," he said.

Soz said it was certainly a tribute to Vajpayee's far-sightedness that soon after Kargil war in October 1999, for which the then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharief had held General Musharraf squarely responsible, it was possible for Vajpayee to sign Lahore Declaration with Nawaz Sharief on February 21, 1999. "It was really miraculous," he said.

However, he said the present day rulers of India should know that Vajpayee had realised that since neighbourhood can't be changed, ways had to be found to promote cordiality in the neighbourhood.

It was on June 8, 2003 that Vajpayee had told the Lok Sabha that friendship with Pakistan had to be maintained as friends can be changed, but not neighbours. Vajpayee maintained the spirit of his vision when he visited Pakistan on January 6, 2004, and thereafter.

"I have no idea as to who can remind PM Modi that the only way forward happened to be the same as adopted by the Vajpayee, whose consistency on that path happens to be the guiding principle for PM Modi,' Soz said.