New Delhi, September 2
The UPA government today started the process of consultations with allies as well as Opposition parties on the forthcoming Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers’ talks here on September 5-6.
The idea is to give the allies and the Opposition a sense of participation on an issue of such national importance as high-level talks with Pakistan, sources said.
The government strategy is to make this a bi-polar exercise with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh taking upon themselves the task of briefing the political leaders and parties.
As part of this process, Mr Natwar Singh today went to the residence of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani and discussed with him the broad contours of his government’s Pakistan policy and the issues to be discussed with his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri.
Mr Natwar Singh also had separate meetings today with his ministerial colleagues, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav, and former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.
He has scheduled separate meetings with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and another former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh here tomorrow. Mr Natwar Singh held consultations with CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet yesterday.
Mr Natwar Singh has convened a meeting of all the 14 allied parties of UPA government in his South Block office tomorrow noon, largely to brief them on the coming talks.
Mr Natwar Singh, talking to The Tribune, sounded upbeat about the forthcoming talks though he added that he neither expected a “breakthrough” from the talks nor anticipated a “breakdown”.
He said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf wanted the process to continue and recalled that during his 90-minute conversation with Gen Musharraf in Islamabad earlier this year, the General never said Kashmir was a core issue.
He refused to be drawn into any controversies when asked to comment on National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit’s remark who had said: “If you ask for a glass of water from Pakistanis they say ‘first resolve the Kashmir problem’”.
“We are ready to discuss all issues with Pakistan on a sustained basis, including Kashmir. This is the most sustained engagement between the two countries since the dialogue between (the then EAM) Swaran Singh and (then Pakistani foreign minister) Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972-73,” Mr Natwar Singh told this correspondent.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) took place under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Apart from the forthcoming Indo-Pak talks, developments in Nepal and Manipur also came up for discussion.
According to sources, India was not in favour of converting Line of Control (LoC) into an international border. But New Delhi was prepared to make the LoC softer and facilitate an increased travel and interaction of people on both sides of the border/LoC.
