The Hindu : Inadequate deliberation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 10, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Inadequate deliberation

WHILE THE MISDEMEANOUR alleged to have been committed by Pakistan's Charge d'Affaires in New Delhi, Jalil Abbas Jilani, should indeed be considered as grave, the more important question is whether or not India should have handled the matter with more deliberation and greater discretion given the fragility of the South Asian situation. Mr. Jilani, who was alleged to be involved in the handing over of Rs. 3 lakhs to a Kashmiri activist for onward transmission to militant groups, has been given 48 hours to leave the country. In calling for the withdrawal of four other officials of the High Commission of Pakistan as well, the Ministry of External Affairs indicated that they might be connected with this particular case. But the Ministry also made clear that the expulsion of the four was being done both because they were believed to have indulged in activities incompatible with their official status in the past, and also because New Delhi wanted to demonstrate the seriousness with which it viewed Mr. Jilani's alleged misconduct. Although New Delhi has conveyed to Islamabad that it does not intend any down-gradation in the level of representation of the Charge d'Affaires — that the official Islamabad could appoint to replace the ousted diplomat could be of the same rank — it is not certain whether Pakistan will act on this offer. As a first step, Pakistan has expelled the Indian Charge d'Affaires in Islamabad and slightly upped the ante by also adding a diplomat to the list of four other High Commission personnel that it has decided to oust. Such a whittling down of the diplomatic representation that each country has in the other does not bode well when there is hardly any other channel of direct communication between them and when this dearth of contact co-exists with the potential for either to do serious harm to the other.

The question that arises is if New Delhi has done enough to substantiate the charge that the money recovered from the Kashmiri activist had actually been given to her by Pakistan's senior-most diplomat in this country. The case made by the Delhi police is that the persons leaving the Pakistan High Commission have been so indiscreet, as to carry funds provided by a mission source and a diary identifying the ultimate recipients, even knowing full well that they and their possessions might be thoroughly searched once they exited the mission compound. Under these unusual circumstances it is to be hoped that the authorities concerned do have a fool-proof case. To level a serious charge against a diplomat of another country without being able to substantiate it (through the judicial process and other convincing means) would not only adversely affect the state of the relationship between India and Pakistan but would also invite uncomfortable questions about India's adherence to the code of conduct between nations. The observance of proper conduct is all the more necessary at a time when the global community is weary of the mean-spirited spats that India and Pakistan indulge in and is only too eager to pin the blame for any escalation of tensions between them.

Whether strong enough evidence exists or not, New Delhi should have proceeded slowly instead of expelling the diplomat within less than two days of the first arrest being made. Time would have enabled more deliberation on all aspects of the matter and it would have, perhaps more importantly, created the impression that the affair was being treated with the seriousness required and not in a hurried or summary manner. Even if Mr. Jilani was indeed guilty as charged it might have been better if Islamabad had been discreetly informed that his presence was not welcome. No great advantage accrues to India from holding aloft a Pakistani diplomat like a trophy that has been bagged.

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