India not under pressure to join U.S.-led coalition: Jaswant

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 26. The Government today said that it was not under pressure from the United States to join action against terrorism and discounted the possibility of India not having a say in the formation of a broad-based government in Afghanistan.

The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, told an anxious Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, that India had ``observer status'' at the U.N.-sponsored Bonn talks where primarily the Afghans would be deliberating on their future government.

India was part of the Group of 21 countries which stood for development of Afghanistan. ``How can a solution to Afghanistan be found without India...We are in the neighbourhood,'' he said.

Intervening in a short duration discussion on the September 11 attacks, its impact on the country and the retaliatory action against Afghanistan, Mr. Singh said, ``No one can pressure India and one billion human beings''. India had withstood pressure even after the 1998 nuclear tests and had been waging a battle against terrorism for the last two decades.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was present during the hour-long intervention by Mr. Singh, would reply to the discussion tomorrow.

India, Mr. Singh said, was not an appendage of any country and it was not New Delhi but the U.S. which had joined the country in its battle against terrorism. ``It is a reflection of mentality...(we must) have the self confidence. They (U.S.) have joined us.''

He said he had repeatedly drawn the U.S. attention to the danger posed by the Taliban and now both the U.S. and Pakistan which gave birth to the Taliban had abandoned it. It was a measure of success for India's attempts to build international opinion against terrorism.

The South Block, he said, had been reiterating for the last three years that Pakistan and Afghanistan were running a terrorism factory against Indian interests. Now that the factory was being dismantled, how could any one not welcome it as India would be benefitting from the move in the form of closure of avenues for terrorist groups including those operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

On the Prime Minister's recent tour of the U.S., Russia and the United Kingdom, he said, it was for the first time in 50 years that the visits were undertaken to two key nations at the same time. This reflected the significance the world community attaches to India. On suggestions that oil reserves in the Caspian Sea could be a motivation for the U.S. to establish presence in the region, he said the Centre had well addressed the issue of energy security. Refuting charges from the Opposition that India had not discussed the emerging situation with other nations, Mr. Singh said he was in touch with his counterparts in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Arab League, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco while the Prime Minister spoke to the Palestinian leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat. There were discussions with South Africa and the Chairman of the Non-aligned Movement.

While not elaborating on India's role in the future set up in Afghanistan, Mr. Singh said the country steadfastly supported the Northern Alliance and had played host to slain Commander Ahmed Shah Masood earlier.

Listing out a string of steps taken to concretise relations between India and Afghanistan, he said, apart from the one million tonnes of wheat and credit line of $ 100 million, a team of doctors had operationalised the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Kabul. Artificial limbs, medical equipment and even videos and audio cassettes of Hindi films were sent. A Kabul-Amristar flight would be restarted and also another connecting Mazar-e-Sharif.

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