Congress questions government post White House closure of anti-Pakistan petition

New Delhi [India], Oct. 5 (ANI):Congress leader Manish Tewari has questioned the diplomatic efforts of the Indian government after the White House abruptly shut down an ongoing online petition that was seeking to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, 'If Pakistan is isolated and the US is with us, why would the White House wind up a petition to declare Pakistan as a terror state,' Tewari tweeted The White House on Monday stopped accepting signatures for a petition that sought to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, saying it has been archived, as it did not meet the "signature requirements". The first petition seeking the Pakistan designation was started by an individual known by initials 'RG' on September 21, the day after Republican congressmen Ted Poe and Dana Rohrabacher introduced a legislation in the House of Representatives demanding Pakistan be designated a state sponsor of terrorism. Citing the legislation in the petition, the sponsor wrote, it (designating Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism) was "important to the people of United State of America, India and many other countries which are continuously affected by Pakistan sponsored terrorism". The petition had, until October 21, to gather 100,000 signatures to merit a response from the White House under the rules of the programme, which it had already collected, and several times more. At closure, the petition had 625,723 signatures but the White House is expected to have an official response to the petition within the 60 days deadline. Official did not explain the kind of suspected "fraud" that shut down the petition. It was also not clear if it had been suspended and will return after the bad signatures were weeded out or whether the process will have to start afresh.(ANI)