NEW DELHI: With Pakistan dilly-dallying in its response to the Mumbai attacks, President Pratibha Patil yesterday reminded it to honor its anti-terror commitment and asked it to take “decisive and credible action against all terrorist groups that are based in, and operate from, its territory”.
Underlining the threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, the president said the Nov. 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks were “deliberately planned to retard our economic progress”.
In her address to the joint session of the two houses of Parliament, Patil lauded the government for raising the global profile of India and pursuing an independent foreign policy that has led to better relations with major powers like the US, Russia and Europe and spoke about improvement in ties with China and Japan.
The president also focused on India’s improving relations with neighbors in South Asia, and underlined that although ties with Pakistan made “considerable progress” over the last five years, the continuation of terrorism has eroded this process.
Patil said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had acted on all commitments made though the national common minimum program that had been translated into laws and policies.
Patil took a broad sweep of the social sector programs initiated in the last five years, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Unorganized Workers Social Security Act 2008 and the Right to Information mentioning that all of them had performed well.
— With input from agencies
