The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners and the Samajwadi Party Thursday staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha over the inclusion of Balochistan in the India-Pakistan joint statement.
The members of these opposition parties walked out of the lower house even as External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna was replying to a discussion on the prime minister's recent foreign visits, including to Egypt where he met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.
When Krishna reiterated that India had nothing to hide on the joint statement issued after the prime ministers' meeting, Advani was on his feet asserting that the opposition's chief concerns had not been addressed either by the external affairs minister or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who spoke on the issue Wednesday.
Advani alleged that the chief concerns about the inclusion of Balochistan and the delinking of terror from the composite dialogue process between the two neighbouring countries had not been addressed.
He said it was "meaningless to continue" the discussion and led his party members out of the Lok Sabha.