NEW DELHI, 6 July — With each passing day an additional touch, ironically a greener one, is being given to the forthcoming Indo-Pak summit. Interestingly, the anti-Pak extremists of yesterday have changed their old stance dramatically. Uma Bharati, the union minister for sports and youth affairs, who hurt many cricket fans by refusing India the permission to participate in the Sharjah series to avoid playing against Pakistan has changed her tune. Sources indicate that the lady has especially written to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee suggesting an Indo-Pak cricket tournament in view of the forthcoming summit.
Another lady of the same camp, Sushma Swaraj, information and broadcasting minister has gone a step further. This year, India has invited Islamabad to participate in the forthcoming International Film Festival at Bangalore from Oct. 10 to 20. When questioned on Pakistan’s response, she said, “We will have to wait and see whether they accept it (invitation) or not.” The deadline for accepting the invitation is August 31.
Interestingly, the entire BJP camp has drawn its agenda around the summit. The party’s next executive committee meeting in Amritsar from July 18 to 20 will focus on the summit. The BJP is desperately hoping that the summit will give it the needed political boost to win the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
If Vajpayee-Musharraf talks are held in a “conducive” atmosphere, chances are party will adopt a resolution hailing “good neighborly relations.” Given the manner in which BJP took credit for the Lahore bus diplomacy it may well be expected to go further to get political mileage out of the Agra summit. Green signals coming from hard-liners like Uma Bharati and Sushma Swaraj are minor indicators.
Efforts are also under way to have Vajpayee and Musharraf administer doses of oral polio vaccine to rural children!
Meanwhile, a two-member team has arrived from Pakistan to examine arrangements in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Ajmer and finalize the logistics. The Pakistan’s president’s itinerary includes visit to mosques in all these cities.
In Agra, where the summit will be held, more than 1000 uniformed have descended to intensify security arrangements. According to S. N. Jha, divisional commissioner, “The task (of providing foolproof) security is a formidable one, but we are up to it.”
