Post report bid to sabotage Indo-Pak talks, says Centre

The sources pointed out that subcontinent-watchers in the US State Department have long felt “uneasy” with the prospect of a rapprochement between India and Pakistan. “Having for the last 50 years been a major player in the foreign policies of both these countries, Washington is uneasy about the prospect of being reduced to a spectator on the frontlines,” a government source said.

The sources refused to name officials in Washington who could be behind the “leaks”, saying only that it was easy to find out who held hardline opinions on nuclear issues and Kashmir. They pointed out that it was at the height of the war against terrorism in Kashmir, in October 1993, that US Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel had questioned Kashmir’s Instrument of Accession to India.

One foreign policy analyst felt that during a large part of Raphel’s tenure (she gives over in two weeks), the bilateral relationship with the US was the “stormiest” in recent times. It didn’t help that it coincided with a period in Indian history where its economy was weak and it was fighting with its back to the wall against international allegations over human rights abuses in Kashmir. The official statement says that it has been India’s “experience that such stories are tendentious, planted deliberately to create confusion. It is not government’s practice to dignify such stories by commenting on them in any detail”.

Ministry sources also pointed out that the Post “leaks” seemed to have given a fillip to certain parts of the Pakistani establishment, especially its armed forces, who are not “particularly comfortable” with the recommencing of the Indo-Pak dialogue. Islamabad has already written to all five permanent members of the Security Council, saying that the Prithvi “deployment” had already caused a “serious degradation in the security environment” of South Asian region.