Opposition leaders and ally Shiv Sena attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government on Monday after India and Pakistan’s National Security Advisors held a hushed up meeting in Bangkok on Sunday. The meeting between Ajit Doval and Lt Gen (retired) Nasser Khan Janjua was only announced by the Ministry of External Affairs after it took place on Sunday. The Ministry said that the talks covered “peace and security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, and other issues, including tranquillity along the LoC”, reported The Hindu.

The Congress accused the government of making a "fundamental departure" from its position on India-Pakistan relations. Congress leader Anand Sharma raised the matter in the Rajya Sabha, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarify India's stand on Pakistan. He also asked the Centre to take the Parliament and the Opposition into confidence about the direction and roadmap that it has in mind. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that having a dialogue with Pakistan was pointless as the country’s main goal was to destroy India by sponsoring terrorism.

Senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha said the Centre should explain to the country why it is resuming the dialogue with Pakistan when the ruling party has been maintaining that talks and terror cannot go on together, reported PTI. The government assured the Opposition that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will make a statement on the matter later this week. Swaraj is travelling to Islamabad for two days on Tuesday, where which she is expected meet her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz.