National

India, E.U. play down rights divide

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI Jan. 22. India and the European Union have managed to put behind them their recent divisive debate on human rights and are looking ahead to more intensive consultations on wide-ranging political issues.

The discussions late last week between the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, and the E.U. leadership in Athens, official sources here said, had helped to restore mutual confidence and created a positive atmosphere for future engagement.

New Delhi was put off by the high-handed European approach to the discussion of human rights problems in recent months.

The mood in the capital darkened further with the way the third India-E.U. summit was handled in Copenhagen late last year.

As two of the world's leading democratic forces, India and the E.U. have now come around to the view that they should not be expending their energies on examining each other's record on human rights and picking holes in them.

The conversations between Mr. Sinha and his interlocutors — Javier Solana, High Representative of the E.U., and Chris Patten, Commissioner for External Relations — has helped create a more conducive atmosphere in which issues relating to human rights can be discussed in the coming years.

There has been a delayed, but welcome recognition in the E.U. that it cannot talk down to India on human rights and democracy. It also appears to have understood that the negative tone and high profile it had adopted in criticising India had been counterproductive.

The rights question remains a high priority for the E.U. and is unlikely to disappear from its agenda.

As the world's largest democracy, India believes it has no reason to be either defensive or hesitant in discussing the issues with anyone.

The two sides have come to see that mutual respect, avoiding strident statements and public posturing are necessary conditions for a sustained and productive discussion.

Greece, which currently holds the E.U. presidency, has had excellent political relations with India over the decades.

Athens seemed to have played an important role in calming the recent tensions between India and the E.U.

At a moment when the collective European voice has emerged stronger on international security issues, both sides have recognised the urgency of substantive and freewheeling discussions on various political questions.

Observers here said that the clearing of the air on human rights should pave the way for a serious effort to inject strategic content into the relations.

Although they had proclaimed a strategic partnership, the observers said, the two sides needed to identify visible cooperative projects in the area of high technology and undertake tangible political coordination on key issues of mutual interest.

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