Summit 'not unsuccessful': PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 19. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today described the Agra summit as ``not unsuccessful'' and that talks with Pakistan would go on(``baat cheet ko aage lejane ki koshish karenge''). He had accepted the invitation of Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, for another summit, but the question of fixing the dates did not arise at the moment.

At the very outset, the Prime Minister confessed that the Government's handling of information flow at the summit left much to be desired, and that Pakistan had frustrated all attempts to prepare the agenda papers, a fact not hidden by him from the opposition and other party leaders.

Addressing an all-party meeting of leaders in Parliament here, Mr. Vajpayee gave a lengthy account of how Pakistan had a one- point agenda, insisting that Kashmir was the ``core issue'' and a matter of ``dispute.'' Pakistan had simply refused to acknowledge the fact of terrorism in the State, and in the end wanted normalisation of relations in all areas to be held hostage on resolution of the Kashmir problem.

The Prime Minister disarmed the opposition by saying that he had consulted them before the summit and that they had appreciated his peace initiative and wished him success while cautioning him to remain firm on India's concerns. That is what he had ``dutifully'' done, even if that meant the end of the summit without a joint declaration or a joint statement. It was, therefore, ``not unsuccessful.''

The opposition did make its points sharply. Dr. Manmohan Singh (Congress) criticised the Government for going into a summit without adequate preparations - no agenda, no structure, and no interface with the media. He also pointed an accusing finger at the Government for contradictions in its post-summit stance - the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, had said in Agra that ``the caravan of peace must go forward,'' while on Wednesday in Delhi, his Ministry's spokesperson suggested that what transpired at the summit should be put into history's dustbin and the process, whenever it begins again, should begin afresh, taking up from the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. This view was also expressed by Mr. Yerran Naidu, (TDP) who said contradictions confuse people. His party would have been happier had the Summit produced a joint declaration while acknowledging that ``complexities of the issues'' prevented this from materialising.

Lack of agenda before the summit was a point of attack by several party leaders. Mr. Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party) was critical of the attempt at diplomacy in a vacuum, and the opportunity India had afforded to the General to legitimise his position. Mr. Anand Geete (Shiv Sena), went to the extent of suggesting that the invitation to Gen. Musharraf was a mistake, and that no talks should take place till cross-border terrorism stopped. Mr P.H. Pandian (AIADMK) said it was impossible to hold summit-level talks without a piece of paper to go on, it had become clear that Gen. Musharraf came to India to exploit the opportunity to place his views before the world community. Mr. J. Chittaranjan (CPI) was of the view that every effort should continue to keep talking to Pakistan, for there was no other option.

There was all-round criticism of the Government's handling of the media, but since the Prime Minister had acknowledged this at the very start, none of the party leaders dwelt on it. Some party leaders suggested directly that the Prime Minister should not go to Islamabad for another summit.

Repeating the exercise done on Wednesday, where Mr. Vajpayee had briefed the NDA leaders, he went over the same points. Pakistan's insistence on Kashmir, it was unprepared to talk about terrorism, and it wanted to hold all other Confidence Building Measures hostage to progress on the resolution of the Kashmir problem. That was not acceptable to India. In the end, agreement could not materialise even in areas where there was possibility of convergence of views of the two countries.

Mr. Vajpayee said repeatedly that India pointed out the need for the two countries to act responsibly as two nuclear powers. There was an urgent need for confidence building mechanisms in this area which was not related to the Kashmir issue, but this effort too came to a nought.

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