To fathom the complexities of India-Pakistan relations has never been easy and going by the strenuous brainstorming session on Tuesday, even senior Ministry of External Affairs officials grapple hard to seek clarity on the subject.The meeting, which included MEA’s all 30 joint secretaries, was apparently an outcome of suggestions made by MEA officials that a forum was necessary to learn about developments in other departments. It was agreed that since events in one section have an impact elsewhere, such a meeting would be convened in the presence of the External Affairs Minister.Tuesday’s meeting was the first such forum of senior MEA officials and the issue was predictably the recent turn in India-Pakistan affairs. The discussion kicked off at 4 pm, though without External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha who was busy in Parliament and then had to attend to the visiting Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic.Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal is said to have convened affairs in Sinha’s absence. No sooner had the open house begun, that a barrage of questions on India’s peace inititiatives, its background, and prospects were hurled at officials concerned with the subject.Surprisingly, the flurry of questions just did not seem to end as official after official raised a doubt or sought clarification. The entire exercise, which lasted for over a couple of hours, is said to finished rather inconclusively with many not fully satisfied with responses. However, officials said, the level of exchange and debate underlined the importance of such interaction.Such a forum, sources added, was necessary for officials to get a wider perspective of the Ministry’s policy and its execution in different parts of the world. Issues such as bilateral ties with Pakistan impacted every other department in MEA and discussions like these would assist them in their task.
