Author: Editorial
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: December 20, 2003
Musharraf Must Suit Action To Words
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's
statement that he was prepared to leave UN resolutions on Kashmir aside
and initiate a dialogue with India is certainly one more step that contributes
to the improved atmospherics in the region. However, it would be wrong
to see it as anything more than a gesture, aimed partly at India and partly
at international opinion. President Musharraf may not be insistent on a
plebiscite being held in Kashmir, but he remains insistent that India should
recognise Kashmir as disputed territory and starting talking on that basis.
This is clearly not something that will be acceptable to New Delhi, which
will point out that Kashmir is a problem internal to India and in which
the only issue to be discussed with Pakistan is cross-border terrorism.
To expect Gen Musharraf's statement to open up the way for meaningful dialogue,
therefore, would be premature at the very least.
The gesture is, however, not entirely
without significance. It certainly shows that Musharraf is willing to play
along with Prime Minister Vajpayee in building an atmosphere of bonhomie
between the two countries. Perhaps Pakistan also wants to create a situation
in which it becomes difficult for Mr Vajpayee to refuse to have bilateral
discussions on the sidelines of the Saarc meeting next month. Also, the
international audience - above all the US - is undoubtedly among those
Gen Musharraf is most interested in addressing and winning brownie points
from. In the brownie points sweepstakes, Mr Vajpayee quite clearly gained
an early lead by initiating the current round of peace initiatives. Gen
Musharraf would be keen to catch up and if possible overtake Mr Vajpayee.
That his statement about setting UN resolutions aside has gone some distance
towards achieving this purpose is evident from the US reaction. The US
State Department has welcomed the statement and termed it "constructive".
What New Delhi needs to do is to keep up the pressure on Islamabad to match
gestures with actual forward movement on the ground - in terms of slowing
down and eventually eliminating infiltration across the line of control-and
on the rest of the world to recognize the importance of such real progress.
