NEW DELHI – Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has asked the Modigovernment to take the nation into confidence over relations with China andPakistan, saying “major differences” existed between the opposition and theruling dispensation on foreign policy issues. The 61-year-old MP fromThiruvananthapuram said the government was not being honest to the peopleabout India’s relations with China.

“We are increasingly convinced that the government is not telling the truthto the people. Doklam has been spun by the government as a diplomaticvictory and from the information that is available in the public domain, itdoes seem a matter of concern,” he said at the ongoing Jaipur LiteratureFestival yesterday.

“We are seeing evidence of reinforced Chinese positions 200 metres fromwhere they had disengaged,” Tharoor said. Indian and Chinese troops hadbeen locked in a stand-off for over two months last year in the Doklam areanear Sikkim before “disengaging” on August 28 last year.

“Tell us what is going on. We are asking to give us a coherent approach. Weare united with you in national interests. Take us along, Take us intoconfidence. Don’t play game of smoke and mirrors with the nation,” theformer Union minister said. He also accused government of having anincoherent foreign policy with respect to Pakistan.

Tharoor slammed the government for going back and forth in its policy onPakistan. “You can’t have a saree-shawl diplomacy one day, artillerydiplomacy next, then ignoring each other in Kathmandu the third day.Calling talks in Delhi and then cancelling them, then having talks inBangkok, then meeting in Ufah and issuing a circular,” Tharoor said.

“They should take (the) nation into confidence,” Tharoor said, adding thatthe government should make its stand clear. Tharoor said there was moreconsensus on foreign policy-related issues in the past between thegovernment and the opposition, but now there were major differences.

“On foreign policy there always was much more consensus in the past. Thenature of that consensus was that we have our political difference but theystop at the waters edge. We don’t take them abroad,” he said. “There wasvery much peace with the idea that we are one when it comes to talking tothe outside world and on national issues there are no political differences.

“Today there are major differences. On most foreign policy issues we try tohave a united front. On Pakistan issue, for example, we are extremelyconcerned at the lack of coherence in the policy,” he said. Tharoor saidthat earlier the opposition knew about what the prime minister was sayingand doing and chalked out a strategy based on that, but now the parties arenot taken into confidence.

“Whether you like it or not , you knew what Manmohan Singh was doing andsaying…Suddenly, we have a Prime Minister who seems to have gone backon…when he was in opposition. This is one area where there is a hugedifference. Their policy keeps changing,” he said.