CALCUTTA, 4 October 2004 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was hugely impressed by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s “straightforward sincerity” when they met in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.
Manmohan shared his frank assessment of Musharraf with a group of Left MPs who called on the premier on his return from his trip abroad.
Besides Left MPs, Manmohan also spoke to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani at length about the Pakistani general.
“I got the impression that he is willing to walk the extra mile to normalize India-Pakistan relations,” a Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP quoted Manmohan as saying during the long meeting with Left MPs at his New Delhi residence.
The CPI(M) MP, who did not want to be identified, said the prime minister seemed to have developed a soft corner for the Pakistani ruler. “When he spoke to us about Musharraf, the prime minister’s body language showed that was not swept off his feet merely by Musharraf’s gifts — a painting of the school in Pakistan where our PM studied and a torn school mark sheet — but had assessed him objectively”, the MP said.
Elaborating on his initial comment that “India could do business with Musharraf”, Manmohan told the Left MPs that he found the Pakistani president “very straightforward and sincere”.
“I think he wants to normalize ties with us even if the Kashmir problem is not resolved. In a way, it’s a vindication of our stand on the festering Kashmir problem”, said Manmohan.
Apparently, Musharraf also told the prime minister that his first priority was to curb terrorism in Pakistan.
The MP said that Musharraf complained to Manmohan that he was misunderstood by some influential Indians. He blamed the media for the misunderstanding.
The MP admitted that the prime minister’s unstinted praise for Musharraf was like music to Left ears. Marxist leaders say privately that as India is six times bigger than Pakistan, the onus of peace rests squarely on New Delhi. Publicly too, their stand on Pakistan is radically different from the Hindu Right’s.
Moreover, the Left opposes India’s growing defense expenditure which New Delhi justifies on grounds of Pakistan’s so-called belligerence. But Marxists do not buy the justification and have been demanding diversion of defense funds to welfare sectors.
The Left also wants a resolution of the Kashmir dispute by involving Kashmiris in the peace process.
Some influential Left intellectuals like Ashok Mitra, former West Bengal finance minister and Rajya Sabha MP, describe India’s armed forces in Kashmir as an “occupation army”. Manmohan’s assessment of Musharraf is rather different from the picture of the Pakistani president usually painted by India’s Foreign Ministry.
Analysts say that if the prime minister’s remarks to Left MPs about Musharraf are any indication, India’s policy vis-à-vis Pakistan will soon undergo a sea change.
