Clinton mentions K-word, touches Delhi’s raw nerve

At a domestic legislative event, a reporter asked Clinton about Vajpayee’s remarks to the US Congress earlier in the day about US-India security relations and fighting cross-border terrorism.

Clinton responded by saying the US is “strongly opposed to terrorism in any form,” but then went on to speculate on a prospective US role in a “peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which has been at the core of the difficulties between India and Pakistan for more than half a century now.”

The President reverted to his familiar views about how smart the South Asians are, how the unrest is holding them back, and how he hoped they can lay this burden down, before reiterating that “in the meanwhilewe’ll have to oppose terrorism in all its manifestations.”

But his suggestion that the US can “play a positive role to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute” and his reference to it being at the “core of the difficulties between India and Pakistan” had visitingjournalists and commentators working up lather.

Conditioned by a reflexive mistrust of any suggestion of a US role, some of them ambushed National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra with the “development.” A rattled Mishra compounded the situation by askingwide-eyed, “Really? Are you sure? Did PresidentClinton say that?” and studied a transcript thrust at him before snapping, “Kashmir is not what we have come to discuss.”

Mishra, however, acknowledged that Kashmir was bound tobe a part of the conversation btween Clinton andVajpayee, but this would only be Indo-Pak relationsand the issue of cross-border terrorism.

The flap over the K-word came after a particularly trying day for the Indian camp during which they struggled to project the Prime Minister’s address tothe Congress as a rousing success amid continuing concern and speculation about the Prime Minister’s health.

Adding fuel to the frenzy was the cancellation at the instance of the Indians of the joint press conference that was to follow the meeting on Friday morning between President Clinton and Prime Minister Vajpayee.

The ostensible reason for the jettisoning the media encounter was that vice-president Al Gore had sought a separate half-hour meeting with the Prime Minister after his luncheon for him on Friday. That would delaythe Prime Minister’s return to the White House for thePress Conference.

But the reasons were apparent: there has been a very obvious reluctance among the Prime Minister’s inner circle to expose him to the media andthe attendant stress on account of his very visible ill-health.

The Prime Minister’s presentation at the Joint Session of Congress was, in a word, dismal. In fact, his aides and protocol staff appeared to have failed to clue him on elementary gestures like responding to applause and ovation and thanking law-makers, gestures that should have come naturallyto the man whose home is Lucknow. But either he was overwhelmed by the occasion or his faculties were slow in responding to the situation.

Aides said his subsequent interactions with lawmakers in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee in moreinformal settings was more relaxed and convivial. In fact, Senator Jesse Helms, a legislative martinet, invited Vajpayee to attend a Senate meeting that he could not due to time constraints, one official said.

In the House meeting, Vajpayee was surprised by India-baiters Dan Burton and Dana Rohrabacher, but he handled the situation coolly, aides said.