RIYADH, 18 January 2003 — A US-led invasion of Iraq could have serious repercussions in the Middle East whose implications should not be lost on India. This view was expressed by a senior Indian journalist in a talk on "Indo-US relations and the war on terrorism" delivered here on Thursday. Siddharth Vardharajan, assistant editor at The Times of India in New Delhi was one of the three Indian journalists addressing a gathering of Indian expatriates at the Indian Embassy auditorium here.
The other speakers were Zafar Agha, formerly of "India Today" and Tehelka.com, and Manvindre Singh, defense correspondent who writes for the "Telegraph." The meeting was organized by Mrs. Sunita Mainee Ahmad, wife of Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, who was also present.
Pointing out that the war on terrorism was dictated more by US strategic interests than by political legitimacy, Vardharajan said any attempt to topple the Iraqi regime could destabilize the whole region. Besides, the political shock waves could also be felt in India, which is engaged in its own battle against terrorism.
In his talk on the "Domestic political situation in India", Zafar Agha said. an important message of the Gujarat elections was that "it made people forget bad governance" as it polarized the electorate along communal lines. "However, one Gujarat cannot drown lndia," he said, adding that BJP's Gujarat experiment would not be applicable to the rest of India."
Zafar said that despite the communal upheaval in Gujarat, the secular ethos of India was largely intact, while reaffirming his "tremendous faith in the country's secular outlook despite the current political situation, which he described as disturbing.
Speaking on "Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations", Manvindre Singh said Pakistan's fixation on Kashmir had made "lndo-Pakistani relations unifocal." He noted that the recent elections in Kashmir had shown that the Kashmiris had rejected the path of violence advocated by the extremists. As for the solution, he observed that "we have to engage in a dialogue with the Kashmiris before we factor in Pakistan." - Javid Hassan
