Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, center in blue turban, and Indian President Pratibha Patil, in sari, pose with newly sworn-in ministers in New Delhi, India, Friday, May 22, 2009. Patil, dressed in an elaborate white green and gold sari, administered the oath of office to Singh and his core Cabinet in a formal ceremony in New Delhi's imposing red-stone presidential palace. (AP)

Dr Manmohan Singh, who took oath of office as India's Prime Minister on Friday (May 22) for a second five-year term on the Congress coalition's victory in the recently concluded general elections, observed, "I have no immediate plans to talk to Pakistan leaders."

His concern, it appears, was 'terrorism' about which he expressed the hope that Pakistan would cooperate with India and not allow its territory to be used against it. New Delhi had already been dragging its feet on the core issue of Kashmir while holding composite dialogue with Islamabad but the Mumbai incident provided it an excuse to stall the whole process of negotiation and point a finger at Pakistan. It asks for punishing the culprits but at the same time ignores the demand for furnishing credible evidence against the Pakistanis it accuses of committing the terrorist act.

India, unlike most countries of the world, is home to numerous insurgencies that successive governments have failed to put down and there is little doubt that the ruthless scourge of terrorism should be a nagging worry for him. One would expect that the highly intelligent, cool-headed and reflective Prime Minister understands that the remedy lies with removing the causes of disaffection that compel the people to take on the might of the state. Denial of their legitimate rights with the use of force would make matters worse.