rediff

New Delhi, Mar 21: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said he had misgivings about the timing of the rath yatras of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Kishenchand Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.

The two BJP leaders announced soon after the Varanasi blasts that they will take out national integration yatras starting April 6.

Dr Singh, speaking to newsmen after President A P J Abdul Kalam gave away the Padma awards to forty-two recipients.

"Definitely, the yatras are a cause for concern. We are determined to maintain communal harmony at all costs and the law and order machinery will take care of that," Dr Singh asserted.

While Advani will begin his yatra from Dwarka in Gujarat, Rajnath will begin from Puri in Orissa.

Dr Singh refused to comment on National Democratic Alliance's demand to scrap the Scorpene submarine deal with France and set up a commission of inquiry headed by a sitting Supreme Court judge to investigate the deal.

Advani had alleged that ex-Congress MP Beena Verma's son Abhishek Verma acted as a middleman in the Rs 18,798 crore-deal.

"I would not like to comment until I see what he has said," Dr Singh told rediff.com.

About Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's statement that India is doing little to solve the Kashmir problem while Pakistan is offering concessions, Dr Singh said these were the views of the Pakistan president and he had nothing to add.

He said he would talk to Omar Abdullah, former minister of state for external affairs in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and president of the National Conference, about his comment that this was a golden opportunity and India should not miss it.

"I would have a word with him," he said.

Omar had met Musharraf when he visited Pakistan recently to take part in a conference on Kashmir organised by Pugwash Conferences for Science and World Affairs.

Talking about the second round table conference on Kashmir, Dr Singh said he will travel to Srinagar in May.

"Our doors are open. I am willing to talk to anyone who has a constructive suggestion. I have met the All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders in Delhi and they too can come and join," Dr Singh added.