06-19-2005, 11:17 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>PM must tell India </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
While it is tempting to dismiss Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent remarks on issues as complex as demilitarisation of Siachen glacier which <b>he wants to convert into a "peace mountain" as naïve and woolly-headed, they indicate that there is more to his agenda vis-à -vis Jammu & Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations than what he has cared to disclose till now</b>.
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While his pronouncements may have brought cheer in Washington and Islamabad, they have left the people of India deeply baffled. Obviously the Prime Minister is working towards a closure on the Siachen conflict; it is equally obvious that he is not too eager to share the details of this closure with his fellow citizens.
<b>Given this backdrop, it would not be out of order to suggest that Mr Singh fears unleashing a wave of revulsion and popular anger against his plan and hence his decision not to take the people of India into confidence on an issue that directly impinges on national security. </b>This, of course, is premised on the supposition that the Prime Minister is working to a plan. Those who are aghast at the ineptitude of the <b>Prime Minister and his National Security Adviser in handling terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and the meek manner in which he has allowed Gen Pervez Musharraf to bamboozle the Government of India, will argue that Mr Singh is merely blundering from one unmitigated disaster to another, conceding ground to Islamabad and weakening New Delhi's position.</b> The events of the past fortnight bear ample evidence to suggest that this argument is not bereft of merit, that the Prime Minister has forced India to adopt the path of least resistance and capitulation at the slightest indication of arm-twisting by Pakistan.
<b>Nothing else explains why leaders of the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference were allowed to travel beyond Pakistan Occupied Kashmir without passports. </b>Indeed, the very fact that they were permitted to use the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route to enter Pakistan renders the agreement between New Delhi and Islamabad, signed with great fanfare, as not worth the paper it is written on. No less astonishing is Gen Musharraf's claim that the UPA Government was complicit in facilitating the Hurriyat leaders' visit to Pakistan, an assertion that has been met with stunning silence by the Prime Minister and his advisers. NDA chairman and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's letter to Mr Singh underscores the ineptness demonstrated by the UPA Government till now.
It also highlights three important points of departure that have resulted in India losing the initiative in its dealings with Pakistan. First, the UPA, and, more specifically, the Prime Minister, have successfully reduced the broad-based India-Pakistan dialogue agenda, forged by the NDA, into a Jammu & Kashmir centric discussion, quietly burying the January 6, 2004 joint declaration that placed the onus of stopping terrorism on Pakistan. Second, Hurriyat leaders, who lack legitimacy, have been allowed to emerge as the sole representatives of multi-religious, multi-cultural Jammu & Kashmir.
Third, Mr Singh has not prevented Pakistan and the Hurriyat from surreptitiously slipping in the need for a "third party" as a guarantor, which suggests he and his Government favour the idea as much as those who have been clamouring for US intervention.<b> Mr Singh must answer the questions raised by Mr Vajpayee</b>. <b>This is not about partisan politics; it is about the future of India's integrity. The people have a right to know what's cooking in the Prime Minister's Office.</b>
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
While it is tempting to dismiss Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent remarks on issues as complex as demilitarisation of Siachen glacier which <b>he wants to convert into a "peace mountain" as naïve and woolly-headed, they indicate that there is more to his agenda vis-à -vis Jammu & Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations than what he has cared to disclose till now</b>.
Â
While his pronouncements may have brought cheer in Washington and Islamabad, they have left the people of India deeply baffled. Obviously the Prime Minister is working towards a closure on the Siachen conflict; it is equally obvious that he is not too eager to share the details of this closure with his fellow citizens.
<b>Given this backdrop, it would not be out of order to suggest that Mr Singh fears unleashing a wave of revulsion and popular anger against his plan and hence his decision not to take the people of India into confidence on an issue that directly impinges on national security. </b>This, of course, is premised on the supposition that the Prime Minister is working to a plan. Those who are aghast at the ineptitude of the <b>Prime Minister and his National Security Adviser in handling terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and the meek manner in which he has allowed Gen Pervez Musharraf to bamboozle the Government of India, will argue that Mr Singh is merely blundering from one unmitigated disaster to another, conceding ground to Islamabad and weakening New Delhi's position.</b> The events of the past fortnight bear ample evidence to suggest that this argument is not bereft of merit, that the Prime Minister has forced India to adopt the path of least resistance and capitulation at the slightest indication of arm-twisting by Pakistan.
<b>Nothing else explains why leaders of the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference were allowed to travel beyond Pakistan Occupied Kashmir without passports. </b>Indeed, the very fact that they were permitted to use the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route to enter Pakistan renders the agreement between New Delhi and Islamabad, signed with great fanfare, as not worth the paper it is written on. No less astonishing is Gen Musharraf's claim that the UPA Government was complicit in facilitating the Hurriyat leaders' visit to Pakistan, an assertion that has been met with stunning silence by the Prime Minister and his advisers. NDA chairman and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's letter to Mr Singh underscores the ineptness demonstrated by the UPA Government till now.
It also highlights three important points of departure that have resulted in India losing the initiative in its dealings with Pakistan. First, the UPA, and, more specifically, the Prime Minister, have successfully reduced the broad-based India-Pakistan dialogue agenda, forged by the NDA, into a Jammu & Kashmir centric discussion, quietly burying the January 6, 2004 joint declaration that placed the onus of stopping terrorism on Pakistan. Second, Hurriyat leaders, who lack legitimacy, have been allowed to emerge as the sole representatives of multi-religious, multi-cultural Jammu & Kashmir.
Third, Mr Singh has not prevented Pakistan and the Hurriyat from surreptitiously slipping in the need for a "third party" as a guarantor, which suggests he and his Government favour the idea as much as those who have been clamouring for US intervention.<b> Mr Singh must answer the questions raised by Mr Vajpayee</b>. <b>This is not about partisan politics; it is about the future of India's integrity. The people have a right to know what's cooking in the Prime Minister's Office.</b>
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