Mounting pressure on Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday asked the neighbouring country to come out with a "full and complete disclosure" of all the facts surrounding the November 26-29 ghastly Mumbai terror attack - and made it clear that it should supplement its words with action.
"I urge the Pakistani authorities to come out with a full and complete disclosure of all the facts surrounding the case, without attempts at denial, diversion or obfuscation," Dr Singh said, addressing corporate leaders at a function at the Oberoi-Trident Hotel, which too was one of the targets of the Lashkar-e-Toiba-sponsored attack.
The 60-hour-long attack carried out by a group of 10 fidayeens had left more than 170 dead and over 300 injured.
He said Pakistan should act against the LeT and other ter rorist groups and their sponsors - in its own interest. "It should ensure that nothing like Mumbai, or the attack on our embassy in Kabul ever happens again," he said in a blunt message. He said that apart from hundreds of innocent Indians, civilians from 21 countries were either killed or injured in the attacks.
Dr Singh said that India has shared the evidence that it gathered so far on the incidents with Pakistan and others.
"Pakistan has admitted that the arrested terrorist is their national. We expect Pakistan to take all the consequent next steps against all those who have planned, organised and executed these horrific crimes," he said.
In its first formal response to India with regard to the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan had on Friday said it had initiated a "series" of actions in connection with the probe into the terror strikes and claimed to have shut down five training camps . Prime Minister Man mohan Singh on Saturday said India's woes due to the global meltdown will continue in the next fiscal, and predicted a lower growth of 6.5-7 per cent this year.
"I must emphasise that our problems will not be over in the current year," the Prime Minister said at The Economic Times Awards function at the sea-facing Trident Hotel. The function was attended by the who's who of corporate world.
"The difficult period will continue into 2009-10. The government will plan on continuing its efforts for a supporting environment next year also. Both the monetary and fiscal policies will have to be tailored to that objective." He said in no uncertain terms that growth in the current year will be lower than last year, as the country's gross domestic product had expanded just 7.7 per cent in the first half of 2008-09, against 9.1 per cent the previous year.
"The latest estimates for the final outcome in 2008-09 vary between 6.5 and 7 per cent. The exact figure is not critical. The important point is that although growth is lower, it is still much higher than most other countries." "Furthermore our agricultural sector is doing well. The brunt of the recession is being felt in the areas that had seen rapid growth earlier. This imposes pain but hopefully these sectors are more able to cope with temporary difficul ties." The Prime Minister said the Indian economy was fortunate that the inflation rate had eased considerably to around 5 per cent and was expected to decline further, giving ample flexibility for monetary policy.
"But on the fiscal side, our space is limited. The fiscal deficit in the current fiscal year will be much higher than originally planned. This is not something to be tolerated indefinitely."
The Prime Minister said business leaders in the corporate sector would have to cope with difficult and changing market circumstances, while responding to the challenges that lie ahead. "Crises are also opportunities to reposition oneself, overcome weaknesses and be ready to resume growth as the world turns upward."
According to Manmohan Singh, the governments of the industrialised world were well aware of the gravity of the crisis and were taking a series of unprecedented and proactive steps to counter the recession.
He said his government, too, has taken a number of measures to counter the global downturn, while asking the corporate sector to realise that the domestic policy action cannot completely negate the effect of a global downturn. "There will be a full recovery to our normal economic potential, but this will take place when global econo my reaches normalcy."
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- Mountaintreks
- I like Nature...it rejuvenates me....I like the silence of the mountains...feel kind of out of place if there is too much of high music or too much of use of horns...Love to cook Asian food.