The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, August 11, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Democracy no term for talks: PM
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said that India was prepared to deal with any form of Government in Pakistan and it was not a precondition for the resumption of talks.

Intervening during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister said it was a reason for objection that a democratic government had been toppled in a military coup and New Delhi “expresses unhappiness over it”.

“Lekin baatchit key liye yeh koi sharat nahin hai ki wahan loktaantra hi ho. Jo jaisa hai, uskey saath nipatney ke liye taiyar hain, (but there is no precondition that there should only be democracy for holding talks. We are prepared to deal with whatever form of government exists there),” he said.

The Prime Minister, however, asserted that India wanted that there should be democracy in all countries, more so in the neighbourhood.

Mr Vajpayee made the intervention when senior Congress member and chief whip of the party in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Pranab Mukherjee wanted to know what were the preconditions for the resumption of talks with Pakistan. Whether it was restoration of democracy in that country or restoration of peace?

Earlier, replying to supplementaries, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Ajit Panja said India was ready to hold talks with Pakistan if they were within the Simla Agreement and the Lahore peace process initiated by Mr Vajpayee.

When the Prime Minister initiated the process, Pakistan had a democratic government, he said, adding that Mr Vajpayee’s visit “is another evidence to show our willingness for peace process”.

“We want to shake hands, but we cannot shake hands with bloodstains,” he said.

Mr Panja said though the ceasefire by the Hizbul Mujahideen was announced by Abdul Majid Dar, it was not called off by him but by the supreme commander based in Pakistan.

To a question, Mr Panja said the government was examining media reports that the Pakistan Cabinet, chaired by Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf, had yesterday reiterated its strong commitment to the cause of Kashmir’s “liberation”.

Earlier, in a written reply, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad that the government remained steadfast in its resolve to defeat Pakistan’s state sponsorship of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India.

Special report
Any Pak regime okay for talks
But first stop cross-border terrorism: PM
From T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s assertion in the Rajya Sabha today that India is not averse to talking to a military or any other regime in Islamabad has set at rest the overbearing view that New Delhi does not want to have an interface with Pakistan’s chief executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Significantly, the Prime Minister favoured dealing with a democratic set-up even as India has steadfastly steered clear of interfering in the internal affairs of another country. It was implicit in Mr Vajpayee’s statement that it was not for New Delhi to dictate or decide what kind of a government another country should have.

Mr Vajpayee did not hide his anguish that the Pakistan military had in a bloodless coup in October last year deposed the duly elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He stressed India would like to have democracies around it. New Delhi also had every right to express its unhappiness that civilian rule had been sent packing in its immediate neighbourhood.

He was emphatic that New Delhi is prepared to deal with any form of government that exists in Pakistan provided the neighbour created conditions conducive to restarting the dialogue. He reiterated that the creation of a conducive atmosphere enjoins Pakistan to stop its decade-old cross border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

This is the first time that Mr Vajpayee has sought to put the record straight especially as it was generally believed in the higher echelons of the National Democratic Alliance government that Gen Musharraf had no locus standi in the prevailing scheme of things in Pakistan. Therefore, the Prime Minister’s averment without naming Gen Musharraf that “we are prepared to deal with whatever form of government exists there (in Pakistan),” assumes importance.

Mr Vajpayee’s intervention came when the chief whip of the Congress in the Upper House, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, asked whether restoration of democracy or stopping cross border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir was the precondition for getting the derailed Indo-Pak talks back on the rails.

However, the Prime Minister’s clarification set off speculation that there was a major policy change vis-a-vis Pakistan after Islamabad’s misadventure in the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir to change the status of the Line of Control (LOC).

The Prime Minister’s office got into the act to remove any misgivings. Highly placed sources told TNS that “India had never said that it will not talk to Pakistan. The talks for moving forward in keeping with the February 1999 Lahore process in the spirit of the Simla Agreement can be undertaken as soon as Pakistan puts an end to cross border terrorism.”

There have been reports in the Pakistani media that Mr Vajpayee and Gen Musharraf are likely to meet on the sidelines of the millennium summit of the United Nations next month. This has been dismissed out of hand by the government.

The sources, who did not want to be identified, hold Gen Musharraf responsible for the Indo-Pak ties plummeting to the depths as it were. They argue that Gen Musharraf sabotaged the historic Lahore process, authored the Kargil intrusions, toppled the democratic government in Pakistan, stepped up cross border terrorism and has now sabotaged New Delhi’s keenness to start negotiations with the Hizbul Mujahideen for finding a solution to the vexed Kashmir problem.

“We have strong reservations in talking to Gen Musharraf but we have not said that we will not talk to Pakistan,” these sources contended. “We will talk provided Pakistan stops cross border terrorism.”

Just last month, Gen Musharraf told a large gathering of Indian scribes that he would not be insulted by India. He felt despondent that New Delhi refused to hold talks with his regime. What indeed raised his hackles was the fact that India had dealt with other dictators in Pakistan like Gen Ayub Khan, Gen Yahya Khan and Gen Zia-ul-Haq but refused to do business with him. He made no bones of scuttling the Lahore process because he said the core issue of Kashmir was relegated to the background by Mr Nawaz Sharif.