New York: Reacting to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to hold negotiations on Kashmir issue, India has asserted that the state is an "inalienable part of India" and nobody can take it away.

"What is Pakistan's right to talk about Jammu and Kashmir," External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha asked while talking to Indian-American students at Columbia University. Kashmir is an "inalienable part of India and nobody, absolutely nobody, can take an inch of that territory away from us". Earlier at the United Nations, Musharraf had invited "India to join Pakistan in a sustained dialogue to resolve the Kashmir dispute." In an interaction with reporters later, he commended his action plan to resolve the differences with India which envisages ceasefire on the line of control, an enlarged United Nations force to patrol the area and greater restraint with respect of acquiring weapons.

"The ball is now in India's court," he said.

PTI