New Delhi, October 19
Mandarins in South Block here are cool to the idea of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee meeting General Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the rescheduled UN General Assembly begnning in New York three weeks hence.
Though no formal decision on the issue has been taken so far, sources here said the subject was engaging the government’s attention as just about a fortnight’s time was left before Mr Vajpayee leaves for Moscow and then from there to Washington.
US President George W. Bush has already invited Mr Vajpayee for a meeting in Washington on November 9.
An influential section within the Vajpayee government is of the view that there is no point in talking to General Musharraf after his unifocal approach that resolution of the Kashmir issue comes first and foremost for improving the bilateral ties.
This section of the government is determined to withstand all pressures from the USA in making sure that Mr Vajpayee does not have any meeting with General Musharraf.
Washington’s interests are limited and well-defined in this regard: to ensure that the two inimical neighbours of the Indian subcontinent keep talking to each other so that the USA’s military operation in Afghanistan continues without any distraction.
Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf were scheduled to meet in New York late last month but the meeting of UN General Assembly got postponed because of the September 11 terror attacks. Since then, India has been showing signs of going back to its old position of not having any talks with Pakistan till it stops its cross-border terrorist activities.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs today described as “purely hypothetical” reports in a section of the Pakistani press that Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf would meet in New York next month and tersely refused to say anything beyond that when asked whether the government ruled out such a meeting.
The Indo-Pak relations, which seemed to be on an upswing in July before the Agra summit, are once again in deep freeze for two reasons. One, General Musharraf’s insistence on “Kashmir-first-everything-else-later” approach, which has sparked off fresh problems in the valley and along the Line of Control (LoC) .
Secondly, the post-September 11 situation and Pakistan becoming an American “ally” in fighting terrorism has led to a serious thinking within the government that India was being used by world powers in their current campaign against terrorism and the two-decade-old Indian concerns regarding Pakistan’s export of terrorism were still being ignored.
The cold relations between India and Pakistan are reflected on yet another issue: confidence building measures on military matters, particularly nuclear weapons. The visit of the Indian Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) to Pakistan is a case in point.
New Delhi had unilaterally announced several days before General Musharraf’s India visit in July that the Indian DGMO would be visiting Pakistan for having discussions on the CBMs. Islamabad had taken umbrage to this announcement and saw to it that the proposed visit does not materialise.
