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Centre for Pak tour after poll New Delhi, February 12 Dismissing the impression that the tour is being called off, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson here categorically said that the October 22, 2003 decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for reviving sporting links with Pakistan, stands. Any formal decision on calling off the tour will have to be taken keeping in mind the larger diplomatic ramifications. The sporting relations between India and Pakistan, which have been on the upswing in recent months, will be hit hard if the tour does not take place as scheduled. Interestingly, the ninth South Asian Federation Games are slated to be held in Pakistan in March/April, for which India has already announced a 400-strong contingent for participation. The Union Home Ministry is learnt to have “suggested” deferring the tour till after the Lok Sabha elections “keeping in view the players’ concern about their security”. A spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, which holds the power to give the final go-ahead to the tour, however, left the ball in the BCCI court, saying “decisions on sporting events are for each sporting association or board to take”. Government sources pointed out “that the question of calling off the tour is too premature as the BCCI team which has gone to Pakistan has not returned and submitted its report to the Board on the security aspect of the tour”. A top BCCI source maintained that “as far as the Board is concerned, the tour is on”. But he indicated that the Board will give due weightage to the suggestion of the three-member BCCI delegation, headed by BCCI Joint Secretary Ratnakar Shetty, who is on an eight-day tour of Pakistan. The BCCI has already indicated that it will have its say in the selection of match venues in Pakistan, and could well omit Karachi and Peshawar, known as the strongholds of fundamentalists and underworld elements, from the list of venues. The other possibilities being talked about are either curtailing the matches or splitting the tour into two phases —Tests and One-Day Internationals. Significantly, Pakistan had extended its unstinted support in enabling India pip Canada to the 2010 Commonwealth Games bid at the Commonwealth Games Federation meeting in Jamaica on November 13 last year. Pakistan also fully backed India in hosting the inaugural Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad in October-November last year, though several countries had expressed reservations about the timing of the games following the US intervention in Iraq. Pakistan not only fielded their hockey team, but also a women’s swimming squad, which was a novelty. “Pakistan did not raise any hue and cry about the security concerns when they agreed to field teams in the Afro Asian Games”, observed Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary-General Randhir Singh. Randhir also asserted that there would be no change in India’s decision to participate in the thrice-postponed 9th South Asian Federation Games to be hosted by Pakistan at Islamabad from March 29 to April 7. “We have no worry about the security arrangement as the Pakistan Government has assured proper security to the Indian contingent”, explained Randhir Singh. He said if the IOA was not convinced about Pakistan’s assurance of foolproof security, the IOA would not have taken the decision to send a large contingent of over 400 sportspersons, with well-known lawyer R K Anand as the chef-de-mission, for the SAF Games.  |
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‘N-secret leak behind rethink’ New Delhi, February 12 “Recent happenings in Pakistan have made us rethink on the security of our players,” Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand told Aaj Tak.
— PTI |
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