The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, January 23, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

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Pak Mission playing mischief
From T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 22 — Pakistan is up to machinations, once again trying to drive a wedge in the relations between India and Nepal.

Information gleaned here alluded to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operatives in the Pakistan mission in Kathmandu trying to circulate doctored video cassettes of Bollywood heart throb Hrithik Roshan allegedly making disparaging remarks against the Himalayan Kingdom and the Nepalese people. This is said to be part of an interview reportedly given by the just married Hrithik Roshan to a music television channel.

Sources here said that the son of a senior official in the Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu studying in a prestigious school there had claimed that he was in possession of a video cassette which purportedly showed Hrithik Roshan making certain unsavoury remarks which portended another law and order situation arising in Nepal.

“It is clear that the ISI is once again up to its antics of circulating doctored video cassettes with the sole intent of whipping of another controversy between India and Nepal as evidenced last month,” the sources said.

A similar claim has also been made by a columnist who is well-known in Nepal for his anti-India stance having linkages with those inimical to this country.

Sources said that security forces in Nepal had earlier caught red-handed some staff members of the Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu carrying RDX and counterfeit Indian currency. It is now common secret that ISI officials in the Pakistan mission in Kathmandu had helped in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft (IC 814) in December 1999.

A major diplomatic fracas was avoided last month involving Hrithik Roshan when a newspaper having virtual monopoly in distributing cable television was the root cause for spreading anti-Indian sentiments leading to rioting, vandalism and deaths in Kathmandu.

Caught on the wrong foot, a bewildered Hrithik Roshan vehemently denied that he had given an interview to anyone or a television network criticising Nepal. This was telecast on all networks in this country and conveniently blacked out in Nepal by the cable operator reportedly having links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who now is residing in Pakistan. Ibrahim sought refuge in the neighbouring country after masterminding the March 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.

A potential diplomatic row between India and Nepal was resolved when on December 29 Kathmandu acknowledged New Delhi’s contention in unambiguous terms that the anti-India sentiments sought to be fanned in that country were built on unsubstantiated rumours.

Even as India condemned the nefarious activities of those inimical to this country in the Himalayan Kingdom, Nepal observed that “the unbridled spread of violence in Kathmandu on an individual’s unsubstantiated and repeatedly refuted remark is not fitting in the national dignity.”

Sources said an inordinately large number of staff deployed at the Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu are intelligence operatives posted under diplomatic cover.

Clarify stand, BJP tells Hurriyat
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 22 — The BJP today asked the All-Party Hurriyat Conference to clarify the agenda of their proposed visit to Pakistan and what would be the subject of discussions with terrorist outfits there.

Addressing mediapersons at the regular Press briefing at the party headquarters, the party Vice- President, Mr K. Jana Krishnamurthi, said the BJP would like to seek a clarification from the Hurriyat as to what was the purpose of their visit to Pakistan and who were they proposing to meet.

Are they going to impress upon their friends across the border that violence should be totally stopped in the Kashmir valley, Mr Krishnamurthi asked and added as what is going to be the basis of their talks. Time has come for Hurriyat to make their stand clear on all these issues, he stressed.

Referring to Pakistan military spokesman’s statement in which there was insistence on tripartite talks, the BJP spokesman said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani had already rejected even a notion of tripartite talks.

India had already stated that there would be bilateral talks with Pakistan on all issues, including Kashmir, Mr Krishnamurthi said.

Asked if there was a change in the party’s policy towards Hurriyat, the BJP leader said “We consider them as one of the party in Jammu and Kashmir. There are other organisations and parties to which the government would talk”.

Asked to name the parties, he said there was National Conference, the BJP along with other recognised political parties, Pundits and others.

On Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Mahakumbh Mela in Allahadbad today, the BJP leader said it was an attempt to steal the limelight and derive political mileage.

“We have nothing against her visit. Anybody is free to go to Kumbh Mela but people go there on basis of faith and some go their for the thrill of being there. I don’t know why the Congress President has suddenly decided to go to Kumbh. It certainly cannot be faith but probably her advisers thought that this was an opportunity to steal the limelight for political purposes”, Mr Krishnamurthi said.

Commenting on the NDA government’s “Look East Policy” and the recent visit of the Chinese leader, Mr Li Peng, the BJP leader said in a written statement: “We have always maintained that India’s traditional cultural and civilisational affinity with countries of South-East Asia and East Asia provides a durable foundation of restructuring a strong political, economic and commercial relationship”.

“We are quite confident that the NDA Government’s Look East policy will usher in a new era in India’s diplomacy”, the statement said.