NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR, 11 July — India yesterday ruled out any resumption of bilateral dialogue with Pakistan saying that the infiltration of rebels into its zone of Kashmir had declined 30 percent in May but was up again.
“We have seen that a 30 percent fall in infiltration was a temporary phenomenon,” External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said.
“Again in the last week of June we saw at least three incidents of infiltration. So where is the climate... the atmosphere for resumption of dialogue?
It was the first time Delhi had mentioned the extent by which militants infiltrations had fallen in the Himalayan region, although Defense Minister George Fernandes said in June that the incursions had nearly ended. Rao said the brief fall was not “reason enough” to agree to peace talks with Islamabad, as sought by Pakistan and some Western nations, including the United States.
“Dialogue with Pakistan will be resumed only when there is a (positive) climate and that climate can be created only when Pakistan puts and end to infiltration and terrorism,” she said. India and Pakistan currently do not engage in any bilateral dialogue.
By agreement the countries’ military officials have a once-a-week telephone call, but this is usually only an exchange of pleasantries or doesn’t take place at all amid the current tensions.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have deployed one million troops to their borders since December, when gunmen allegedly linked to Pakistan attacked the Parliament in New Delhi. Pakistan maintains there is no infiltration of militants across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
And Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in a May 24 television address, said he would not allow his country to be used as a base for terrorism. India withdrew some sanctions imposed on Pakistan after Musharraf’s address.
However, amid renewal of tension in South Asia, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was due to return to the region later this month. Rao also said a return of India’s high commissioner to Islamabad, withdrawn in December, would depend on Pakistan taking “visible, credible, permanent steps to end infiltration and to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure”.
Britain’s special envoy to India, David Manning, yesterday met External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, amid a round of diplomatic visits to cool India-Pakistan tensions. Manning, who is also foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, is scheduled to hold talks with National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra later in the day.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said yesterday the Indian economy will grow six percent in the current fiscal year despite the military tensions with Pakistan.
Vajpayee, speaking to business leaders, also renewed the government’s pledge to privatize state-owned businesses and said Delhi will work toward increasing the flow of foreign investment into the country.
“Despite the situation on the border, neither the pace of the economy and policy reforms, nor the implementation of key infrastructure projects has slowed in any way,” Vajpayee said.
“In this fiscal year (ending March 2003), we expect to grow by around six percent,” he said, adding annual inflation is around two percent and foreign reserves have grown to over $58 billion .
India’s economic growth last financial year was 5.4 percent, slower than the six to seven percent growth in the first half of the 1990s following the initial round of economic reforms.
Economists have warned that unless the border tensions ease, military spending could soar above India’s annual defense budget of around $14 billion. The prime minister said the government had set up a committee to work out priorities for economic reforms in different sectors.
He added the government had also decided to fast-track 100 major infrastructure projects and would accelerate its privatization program. India has set a target of raising 120 billion rupees through the sale of stakes in state firms in the current financial year.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after the meeting that industrialists felt the economy was on its way to recovery. “There was optimism in the air about economic recovery and the momentum of the optimism needs to be maintained,” Jaswant said.
The finance minister said the meeting focused on potential reforms in the power and petroleum sectors.
India’s power sector is beset by problems of theft and poor infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a civilian was killed overnight in Indian-administered Kashmir when Pakistani and Indian troops shelled each other’s positions over their heavily militarized disputed border, police said.
The civilian died on the spot when a Pakistani shell fell on his house in the Kalsi area of the central Poonch district, police said. They said Indian troops also shelled and fired on Pakistani positions across the de facto border.
