New Delhi, July 27
A top-secret Cabinet Secretariat report is against holding talks with Pakistan at the highest level and stressed the need for India increasing its bargaining position with Islamabad for improving relations with that country.

Significantly, the report emphasises without elaborating that Pakistan also should be made to bleed, well-placed sources in the government told The Tribune here today.

The report says the government must take expeditious measures to improve the situation in Jammu and Kashmir politically, administratively and militarily.

It says that no talks with Pakistan could succeed unless India improved its bargaining position with Islamabad. In this context the report has suggested foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan as of now instead of top-level political contacts as there was no change in Islamabad’s hardline attitude towards India.

This is particularly so because Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism apparatus against India has gone into an overdrive after the Agra summit.

The 10-page report dated July 18 was submitted to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. It gives a detailed analysis of the ‘failed’ Agra summit and focusses on the strategic imperatives for the consideration of the Vajpayee government.

The report is in three parts : (1) Implications of the Agra summit; (2) Lessons from Agra; and (3) The future strategy.

In para 8 the report says there is no change in Pakistan’s hardline attitude towards India and argues that against this backdrop there was no use holding talks with Islamabad at the top political level.

The report makes it clear the Cabinet Secretariat is not against talks with Pakistan but strongly feels the talks should continue at the level of Foreign Secretaries at present.

It is learnt that the Vajpayee government is in agreement on this issue. This indicates that Indo-Pak dialogue henceforth should be held on the basis of a structured agenda which Islamabad has been consistently refusing.

A significant point mentioned in para 7 of the report draws pointed attention to Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and how it is all set to further increase its network of terror in this country.