New Delhi, July 15
The first sign of India-Pakistan peace process coming to a jerky halt
was visible today as a two-member Indian Parliamentary delegation that
was scheduled to be in Islamabad tomorrow for a Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association meeting called off its visit.
Moreover, this correspondent understands, New Delhi has taken a
position that no Pakistani official delegation or a ministerial visit
to India would be welcome.
Add to this the categoric assertion by Foreign Secretary Shyam
Saran at his special media briefing today that “it is becoming
difficult to take the peace process forward” and a complete picture
emerges: that the three-year-old Indo-Pak peace process is dead and
buried, at least for now.
A two-member delegation of Indian Parliamentarians — Ms Brinda
Karat, a CPM member in the Rajya Sabha and Mr Sandip Dixit, a Congress
member from the Lok Sabha — was to attend a Commonwealth meeting in
Islamabad to discuss gender bias. Its cancellation has huge political
connotations as it clearly means that the Left Parties too are with
the government on sending a tough message to Pakistan after the July
11 terror mayhem in Mumbai and Srinagar.
Though Mr Saran did not say that his talks with his Pakistani
counterpart had been called off or cancelled, he left none in doubt
that India would decide on the dates for the Secretary-level review
meeting of the Composite Dialogue process “at an appropriate
time”. Without chewing words, he said incidents like July 11 did
undermine the peace process and put a question mark on the whole
thing. He also said the peace process could not go ahead while
ignoring the public opinion.
The Foreign Secretary, whose media briefing had been arranged
primarily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to St Petersburg
tomorrow for attending the G-8 Plus Five summit, made it clear that Dr
Manmohan Singh would be making a very strong pitch at the G-8 for a
united response as the matter affected the whole world.
“You have seen the networks which have come to our attention
whether if you look at the London bombings, or what has been happening
in other parts of the world, it is quite apparent that these are all
interlinked. Therefore, you cannot have a segmented response to
terrorism. I think the message which should come out from the G-8 is
that the world accepts that there cannot be a segmented response to
terrorism and that unless we are ready to work together and really
look this problem in the face we do not really succeed.”
Mr Saran said the international community had to come out with a
very unambiguous expression that such acts of terrorism were totally
unacceptable.
