India is ready to meet Pakistan over Kashmir as soon as the atmosphere is "conducive", Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee said in an Independence Day
address today.
"We want to live as good neighbours with Pakistan," Mr Vajpayee said. India is ready to hold dialogue with Pakistan and for further de-escalatory steps, but the atmosphere should be conducive".
Taking a swipe at Pakistani President Mr Pervez Musharraf, Vajpayee said: "Those who call the Kashmir polls farcical, should look at their own affairs at home".
Mr Musharraf, in an address on Pakistan's Independence Day on Wednesday, described India's announcement of elections in Kashmir as "yet another effort to give a mask of legitimacy to its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir".
But Mr Vajpayee accused Pakistan of holding double standards. "Our neighbour is opposing terrorism at international level but has two standards. It was not able to wrest Kashmir by war, so has unleashed this on us," he said, referring to Islamic militancy that has ravaged the state for the past 13 years.
Mr Musharraf on said Pakistan was merely supporting the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination.