archive: Tokenism by CMs
Tokenism by CMs
Editorial
The Free Press Journal
July 9, 1999
Title: Tokenism by CMs
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: July 9, 1999
Predictably, the conference of Chief Ministers convened by the
Vajpayee Government to discuss the Kargil situation revealed the wide
chasm between the ruling and the Opposition parties. While paying lip
service to the need to maintain unity till the last of the Pakistan
aggression was fully vacated the Congress Party and its new-found
ally, the Leftists, sought to queer the pitch for national solidarity
by raising divisive issues with their gaze firmly fixed on the
forthcoming parliamentary poll. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Digvijay Singh, who belongs to the Congress Party, seemed to have
suffered from a severe case of amnesia when he suggested that
relations with Pakistan had been peaceful since the Shimla Agreement
27 years ago. Clearly, Singh's was a command performance. Like his
Congress Party counterparts from Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa and the
Leftist Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, the MP
Chief Minister too was under pressure to raise a discordant note or
two at the conference in order to embarrass the Government.
In the event, Singh's question drew an effective riposte from the Home
Minister L. K. Advani. In the Pak-inspired insurgency since the
signing of the Shimla Agreement, Advani told Singh, over 1700 soldiers
had died in Punjab between 1984 and 1994 while 1,845 armed forces
personnel had lost their lives in Kashmir in the decade beginning
1989. Fifteen thousand civilians were estimated to have lost their
lives in Punjab in what numerous Congress Party leaders had said was
the ISI-fuelled insurrection in Punjab. In Kashmir, the figure of the
dead was over 21,000. Yet, Singh harped on the Shimla Agreement as if
it 6ad ensured life-long amity between India and Pakistan. Advani did
well to nip the mischief Singh was clearly up to in the bud. The Home
Minister added for good measure that the present hostilities in Kargil
had so far claimed 270 lives whereas Pakistan had suffered over 500
fatal casualties.
Another point of criticism highlighted by the Congress Chief Ministers
pertained to the alleged intelligence failure. Delhi Chief Minister
Shiela Dikshit wanted to know as to why the early warning signals
about the incursion were ignored. She demanded a white paper on
Kargil. The official response that the questions raised would be duly
answered in good time once the last of the intruders had been driven
out did not satisfy the Opposition. Maybe they needed to be told that
the first incursion in the 18,000-feet high Kargil mountains began as
far back as a decade ago. Reliable reports in the media have detailed
at some length the virtual neglect of the snow-peaked Kargil mountains
by both Pakistan and India until the current conflagration there. Two
years ago when the highest in the Government was told of the initial
incursions, he is said to have written on the file that the matter
could be sorted out through 'diplomatic talks with Pakistan.'
Ironically, the same politician is now the loudest in decrying the
intelligence failure in Kargil. The Communists, unhappy that the US
had deservedly earned some goodwill in the country by its insistence
that Pakistan vacate the aggression in Kargil, were apprehensive about
the internationalisation of the Kashmir issue. West Bengal-Chief
Minister Jyoti Basu was the foremost in giving vent to these
apprehensions. Vajpayee reiterated his opposition to third party
intervention in Kashmir and rightly observed that 'global support to
India (over the vacation of the Pak aggression in Kargil) did not
amount to internationalisation of the Kashmir issue'.
The most sticky issue at the conference, as expected, was the proposal
for the convening of the emergency session of the Rajya Sabha on
Kargil. Ale Chief Ministers were badly divided on the is-sue with
seven of them pressing for an emergent RS session while as many as 13
opposed it. Among the seven were the four Congress Chief Ministers.
All thirteen, however, did not belong to the ruling alliance in New
Delhi. Given that the Government is far outnumbered in the RS by the
Opposition, the convening of its session at this juncture might be
used by the irresponsible elements for purely partisan ends. Instead
of strengthening the cause of national solidarity on Kargil, the
Opposition will find it hard to resist the temptation to use the floor
of the House for purely polemical purposes. The fact that the
deliberations of the day-long Chief Ministers' conference too were
conducted on party lines leaves little scope for doubt that the forum
of ' the RS will be used by either side to play politics. Unless
there is an agreement between the two sides on the agenda of the
proposed RS session, the House should not be summoned. If the
objective is to criticise each other, then little purpose would be
served by convening the RS at this stage. You can hear nutty Natwar
Singh and over-the-top Mani Shankar Aiyar on the myriad TV channels in
your homes.
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