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`Groundwork needed for Indo-Pak. talks to resume'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD May 26. A conducive atmosphere had been created for the resumption of the dialogue process between India and Pakistan after the recent peace initiative by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Islamabad's positive response, the Congress Working Committee member, Mani Shankar Aiyer, said here today.

In an informal talk with presspersons after a luncheon meeting with the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, the CWC member made it clear that a "lot of groundwork" was needed before the two sides could sit down for negotiations.

Mr. Aiyer made it clear that he met Mr. Kasuri in his "personal capacity" and that he had no message either from his party or from the Vajpayee Government. "Of course we discussed as freely and frankly as possible the whole gamut of issues. It would not be proper on my part to divulge details of talk between two old friends."

Maintaining that Mr. Kasuri was a man of his word, the Congress leader said "we should take him for his word. This is what I had said in India inside Parliament. There is a good atmosphere and I pray to god that talks resume as soon as possible."

When a correspondent wanted to know if Mr. Vajpayee's peace initiative was motivated by the coming Assembly elections in India, Mr. Aiyer said, "it is good if peace could be the motive for electoral purposes. All I want to emphasise is that talks should be uninterrupted and uninterruptible".

On whether Mr. Vajpayee was serious about the initiative, Mr. Aiyer said that in his view the Prime Minister was indeed serious. "I am glad we have abandoned the path of rushed summits and instead opted for a step-by-step approach."

On the reported statement of the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, in the Financial Times that India was not making cross-border terrorism a pre-condition to the talks, Mr. Aiyer said, "as an Indian I am concerned about cross-border terrorism.

``Of course it is very much there. At the same I am glad it would not be a stumbling block for resumption for talks."

`Cong. will take on right-wing forces'

Earlier, making a presentation on the theme "India's destiny: secularism or Hindutva?" at a seminar here, Mr. Aiyer said India's secular fabric and nationhood were threatened by forces of right-wing religious extremism and that the Congress as a political force was committed to take on the challenge. Organised by the Institute of Regional Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, the seminar has participation from scholars of Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.

Mr. Aiyer said the BJP's successful experiment in mixing cultural nationalism and the composite nationalism had made it imperative for the Congress and secular forces in India to wage a bitter battle against the right-wing Hindu nationalist forces from hijacking the agenda of the modern secular India.

He conceded that during the last 10 years the BJP had made "enormous" strides by posing itself as the natural party of cultural nationalism and by cleverly mixing it with composite nationalism.

"The Congress is therefore caught in the dilemma of determining whether a softer line on secularism or a hard secular fundamentalism is the right response to the imperative of not just returning the Congress to power but the much more fundamental question of how it should position itself to prevent its agenda for the modern nationhood of India being hijacked by an alternative saffron version."

This was by no means a difficult choice for the Congress as it had been fighting Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist forces from the days of the Independence movement, Mr. Aiyer said.

Pointing out that India with its diversity had no alternative but to stay put with secularism as the bedrock of its nationhood, Mr. Aiyer said, "we are one nation, one people. Therefore our secularism and nationhood are inseparable".

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