AGRA, 18 July — Strong rumors abounded at the media center at Mughal Sheraton hotel that there were some strange reasons, responsible for the failure of Indo-Pak summit. Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, also talked of “some hidden hand” sabotaging the summit.
Information Minister Sushma Swaraj was quick to refute charges that she was sabotaging the talks by addressing to the media and giving one-sided view.
Was the Agra summit really sabotaged? Are there forces on Indian and Pakistani sides which really wanted talks to fail? May be, concrete proof of sabotage may never be found. But one thing will always remain in the minds of the media persons that there were some strange and unexplained behaviors of leaders from both the sides. In addition a section of Indian media, made no secret of its biased approach to the entire peace process.
Immediately after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf arrived at Rashtrapati Bhavan, these groups started scrutinizing the body language of Musharraf. News channel “Aaj Tak” found the president to be nervous and stern looking. The same channel newscaster literally complained to one of its expert during Agra parleys that Musharraf was using Indian soil, Indian facilities and Indian media to send his message back to his people in Pakistan. The poor newscaster probably did not know the protocols of the summit and niceties involved in the visit of a head of state.
The same media down played Musharraf’s gesture at the Rajghat and his comment on Mohandas Gandhi. Senior journalists like M.J. Akbar, Shekhar Gupta, Dilip Padgaonkar and Parnnoy Roy termed his gesture as extraordinary and moving.
The editor of India Today, Prabhu Chawla, kept misquoting Musharraf and through out the three-day deliberations ridiculed the whole process. When Musharraf said that he had come to discuss Kashmir issue but was open to talk on all other issue. Chawla kept insisting that the general refused to talk about anything other than Kashmir.
At the breakfast meeting with the editors, the visiting president categorically denied that he is fixated with Kashmir and said that he was ready to discuss all other issues, but Chawla continued with his misquotations.
On the second day when hope of summit success soared, the same editor and the “Aaj Tak” channel took their attack on the summit at a different plane. Both started comparing summit with a one-day cricket match and speculated who will win or loose. When Musharraf commented that the talks he had with Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee was fruitful.
Chawla and “Aaj Tak” again ridiculed his comment saying “Which fruit he meant apple or mango or banana.” Such comments left a very bad taste in the mouth. “Aaj Tak” is also owned by India Today.
Indian journalists covering the summit said that these anti-summit campaigners were echoing the sentiments of the conservative group within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that were opposed to the talks.
In the midst of this media carnage came Sushma from nowhere and changed the entire course of the summit. She may refute all the allegations and may be that what she did was unintentional, but one fact remains that she will now live through with the stigma that her actions gave a big blow to the peace process.
The procedure and protocol is that it is either the foreign secretary or the principal information officer at the Ministry of External Affairs or the foreign minister who briefs the media. Sushma came breaking the tradition and started giving inputs on the proceedings of the talk between Vajpayee and Musharraf. She mentioned all the issues, which India wanted to discuss, and ‘missed’ Kashmir. Who authorized her to brief the media is everybody knows. She is known for her allegiance to Home Minister L.K. Advani.
The blame for the failure is also put on Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar, who is well known for his hard-nosed diplomatic tactics. In India he also holds the reputation of being anti-India. Diplomatic sources say that Sattar had a personal hand in the most controversial aspect of the summit. He, reportedly overrode the objection of Pakistani High Commissioner to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi over Musharraf meeting Hurriyat leaders at the tea party.
How far these reports are correct is anybody’s guess, but one fact remains that both the sides are obsessed with the word Kashmir. There is no victory for Pakistan in this word and nor any defeat for India.
Only the naive will think that there is some other reason for discord between India and Pakistan other than Kashmir. To quote Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook magazine, “Every one in India knows that Kashmir is the main bone of contention between the two countries.”
