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Journalism of Courage
Even as it shies away from direct dialogue with Pakistan, India is using the SAARC cover to slowly prepare for Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s visit to Islamabad for the group’s meet from January 4-6 2004.
The PM has already postponed his departure for Moscow on November 11 so as to inaugurate the SAARC Information Ministers’ conference in the capital. Later this month, the SAARC Health Ministers as well as the SAARC Science and Technology Ministers will meet in New Delhi. Pakistan is expected to attend all three meetings.
Meanwhile, New Delhi is gearing up for the civil aviation talks on December 1-2, which, although they will be held under the aegis of the Director-General of Civil Aviation, is clearly a foreign policy initiative. Soon after the airline talks in December, Disinvestment and Communications Minister Arun Shourie is slated to visit Islamabad to participate in a SAARC Communication Ministers’ meeting.
Meanwhile in Kathmandu, joint secretaries from SAARC will meet again to take forward their September proposals on a framework for the SAARC free trade agreement as well as ‘‘multilateralising’’ tariff lines so far restricted to one country. That is, tariff lines initially restricted to one country are now likely to be valid for all SAARC members.
Movement on all these SAARC fronts, analysts say, is bound to have an impact on the so-far indirect dialogue between India and Pakistan.
But it is the PM’s decision to postpone his departure for Moscow on the morning of November 11 (he is in Russia for barely two days before he travels to Dushanbe, Tajikistan and onwards to Damascus, Syria) that is now the cynosure of all eyes.
Analysts pointed out that Vajpayee need not have made the gesture of inaugurating the summit unless he wanted to send the message that the peace process with Pakistan is alive, if only haltingly.
Oddly enough, India seems to have abandoned its own ‘‘composite dialogue’’ process it proposed with some fanfare during the prime ministership of I.K. Gujral in 1997. That dialogue had proposed Foreign Secretary-level discussions on peace and security and confidence-building measures, besides Kashmir, while six other subjects were to have been discussed at the Secretary level. In fact, one round of FS-level talks took place in Islamabad in October 1998, five months after both countries went nuclear, while Secretary-level talks on the six issues (including Siachen and Sir Creek) were held in Delhi a month later in November.
Since the PM’s April peace initiative this year, Islamabad has repeatedly stated its readiness to resume ‘‘composite dialogue,’’ but New Delhi seems to have developed cold feet. The MEA has insisted on a ‘‘step-by-step’’ process to normalcy, so as to control movement, rather than federalise dialogue structure with other parts of the government.
