‘Kashmir a bilateral issue with Pakistan’
NEWDELHI: India informed visiting President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday that a solution to the Kashmir issue can only be found through bilateral talks with Pakistan, tacitly rejecting his suggestion for multilateral dialogue on the matter. The Kashmir issue has a “prominent dimension of crossborder terrorism” that needs to be stopped by “those who are perpetuating it”, external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said without naming Pakistan. Erdogan and PM Narendra Modi had a “detailed discussion” on terrorism and the two leaders agreed there could be no justification for terrorism wherever it is committed. They also urged all countries to disrupt terrorism networks and financing and “stop cross-border movements of terrorists”, Baglay said.
The Turkish leader had ruffled feathers in Delhi by suggesting in an interview before his arrival in India that there should be a “multilateral dialogue” to find a solution to the Kashmir issue.
The remarks were seen as a riposte to Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades’ call for India to help in the reunification of the part of his country that is controlled by Turkey.
“We are ready to address any issue between India and Pakistan bilaterally through peaceful means as has been stipulated in the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration.”
AGGRESSIVE EFFORTS TO IMPROVE TIES
NEWDELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called for more aggressive efforts to deepen economic ties between Indiaand Turkey, saying the present level of commercial relations between the two countries are “not enough”.
PM Modi was speaking at an India-Turkey business summit with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is visiting New Delhi. India-Turkey trade stands at $6.4 billion, which officials say is much below potential. Ankara wants a Free Trade Agreement and a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to bridge the deficit with New Delhi. Ankara is actively looking to Asia in terms of economic development and security. NEW DELHI The election commission (EC) differs with the Centre’s view that introduction of electoral bonds will curb illegal money in political funding. Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the proposal to introduce donations through electoral bonds in his budget speech.
The poll panel, which is set to share its misgivings about the bonds with the government, has objections to the amendment to the Finance Bill that bars disclosing details of donors and inclusion of contribution from bonds in income-tax returns.
The panel is not happy with the changes in the Representation of People’s Act which allow parties not to show collections from bonds in contribution reports filed with the EC, sources said.
“If it is not part of the contribution report, it will not be part of the report the EC gives to the tax department, the corporate affairs ministry or the ministry of home affairs. It will not be made public anywhere, so how will there be transparency?” a source said.
Under section 29 (c) of the Act, parties had to file contribution reports, complete with the names of donors and their addresses, for amounts above ~20,000 from a single person or company.