New Delhi, Jan 26: With the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers from IPL this year triggering a diplomatic row with India, foreign policy experts from both the countries have favoured resumption of composite dialogue between the two neighbours.
 Participating in a debate on “India Tonight” programme with Karan Thapar, to be aired on CNBC TV 18 soon, former Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, retired Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey and former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmad Khan, said such “minor incidents” should not be allowed to affect the Indo-Pak relations.
 Singh said that India should be magnanimous enough to apologise to Pakistan (on the IPL fiasco), adding, “India did not act in a mature manner on the issue. The sports minister (M S Gill) should say something on this”.
 However, Dubey was of the view that instead of an apology, nothing short of a re-bidding (of players) will do.
 Khan said the non-selection after inviting Pakistani players for IPL bidding was “insulting”.
 Noting that Pakistan’s “dilly dallying” over strong action against the 26/11 attackers was the impediment in the Indo-Pak dialogue, Dubey conferred with Thapar’s view that Islamabad was using LeT as a “convenient tool” to target India.
 Defending his country on the militant front, Khan said Pakistan has taken “concerted and strong action” against militant groups and pleaded that when it was a victim of terror too, how could it let them breed on its soil.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST