Monday, Sep 15, 2003
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By V.S. Sambandan
Asked for his reaction to the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha's call in New Delhi today for MFN status to India, Mr. Kasuri said he had not seen the text of Mr. Sinha's speech yet but said by way of general comment that "Pakistan is agreeable to resumption of a composite dialogue which would include all issues." Earlier this morning, in an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Mr. Kasuri pressed the case for resumption of official dialogue and said that he expected a change in the Indo-Pak. situation over the next 10 years, with growing internationalisation of the Kashmir issue. Welcoming the progress made through the Track II diplomacy, Mr. Kasuri, however, said: "We need to get on with official talks if we are serious." Commenting in detail on the recent visit by an Indian parliamentary delegation to Pakistan, Mr. Kasuri said Pakistan had decided to officially receive the team, as "we did not believe in a competition in churlishness". In addition, "it was a calculated decision to send a message to the Government and the people of India that we respect the elected representatives of the people of India. And we also would expect that they would spread this message to the people of India that the people of Pakistan bear them no ill will". Emphasising the need to move further, Mr. Kasuri said: "Whereas I welcome efforts on Track II level, Track II can never be regarded as a substitute for official level talks and the Government of India must be alive to that." On the options before the two countries, he preferred recommencing the course from the Agra Summit, rather than from the pre-December 13 situation, which he described as one of "no-war, no-peace" and one that "may be alright as starters, but that is hardly something that we should be aiming for if we have any idealism left in us, if we are bothered about the poor people in our two countries." That no-war, no-peace option, he said, "led the two countries to three wars" and hence was not a sensible option. During the Agra Summit, both leaders "agreed on the need for a comprehensive dialogue including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir", he said adding that "both the leaders having shown flexibility, I think there is a need for a large dose of statesmanship and a large dose of courage to start from where President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee left at Agra. That is of course a more sensible course. Why do we try to re-invent the wheel, unless we wish to delay for the sake of delay? That is a different thing." The SAARC, Mr. Kasuri, said had "unfortunately" been "a hostage to Pakistan-India relations and the relations have become a hostage to the dynamics of internal politics in India, including India's elections, which never seem to end". On how he saw Indo-Pak. relations a decade from now, Mr. Kasuri said: "Unless we are our own worst enemies, there will be progress" and that the two countries will "continue to remain in the lower rung of development despite having a lot of potential". In addition, "it is also clear that once the Palestinian issue is resolved, the oldest, most rancorous issue on the international stage will be Kashmir notwithstanding statements by many Indian leaders that it was not an issue", he said.
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