I was duty-bound to correct distortion: Sushma

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. The Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, today put the record straight on her role at the Agra summit. Responding to the charge levelled at her in the Pakistani as well as the Indian media that her ``selective'' briefing in Agra derailed the talks, she said all that she had done was to give out details of what had till then transpired between the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

In her characteristic flowery style, Ms. Swaraj argued in the Rajya Sabha that she was at Agra as the Information Minister and was duty-bound to correct the distortion in the selective briefing by Pakistani officials. If she did not mention Kashmir, it was because she could not be a party to the Pakistani strategy of converting the India-Pakistan summit into a Kashmir summit.

Avoiding pinning any blame on the electronic media, the Minister said the media, perhaps, fell for the guiles of the Pakistani media managers. She decided to make the controversial television appearance on July 15 because ``anchor after anchor, panelist after panelist, expert after expert, analyst after analyst'' were busy talking of Kashmir and only Kashmir. This, according to her, was at variance with what was going on.

Participating in a discussion on the summit, Ms. Swaraj sought to counter the Congress spokesperson's charge that the Government had frittered away the ``blank cheque'' and returned with a ``huge overdraft''. Not the one to avoid a repartee, she said unlike at Tashkent and Shimla, India did not concede and instead came back with a `fixed deposit'.

She said when the Vajpayee Government agreed to talk about Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, it was clear the dialogue would be about the situation and not its status.

Underlining the `achievement' of the summit, she said India was now in a `win-win situation'. By having invited Pakistan for a dialogue, the country had showed its commitment to the peace process without compromising its national interest.

She then went on to praise the Prime Minister for having added a new chapter in the text book of diplomacy by being polite in approach but tough in speaking. ``It was Gen. Musharraf who had to return empty-handed''.

Responding to Gen. Musharraf's offer of allowing Mr. Vajpayee an interaction with the Pakistani media during his visit to that country, the Minister retorted that if one uncomfortable question to the Pakistan President could result in a chief reporter being demoted, what could be the usefulness of such an interaction.

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