NEW DELHI, 17 May 2003 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said bilateral ties between India and Pakistan should not be linked only to the Kashmir problem, which he is confident would be resolved.
Noting that Pakistan had not responded positively to earlier Indian efforts to normalize relations, Vajpayee reiterated the onus was on Islamabad to create an atmosphere conducive to dialogue by ending trans-national terrorism.
“May I stress that the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan should not be linked only to Kashmir. India and Pakistan would have had several disputes even if the one on Kashmir did not exist,” Vajpayee said in an interview with Sahara Time, a new weekly newspaper to be launched today.
“I am confident that the Kashmir problem will be resolved and peace will return,” Vajpayee said in the wideranging interview in which he spoke about relations with Pakistan, the changing global scenario and his experiences in government.
“We wish to normalize our relations with Pakistan,” he said, referring to his journey by bus to Lahore in 1999 and the summit at Agra with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in July 2001.
“But Pakistan did not respond positively. Trust is the foundation of a genuine dialogue. So the onus is on Pakistan to stop aiding and abetting cross-border terrorism. Then we will be ready for a dialogue.
“I have often stated that we can change friends but not neighbors. The sooner Pakistan understands this reality, the better it is for them.” Vajpayee reiterated that national interests, and not pressure from the US, were behind his latest initiative to improve ties with Pakistan. “India is a self-respecting nation. It kowtows to nobody.”
New Delhi, he said, wanted terrorism to be defeated across the world and would welcome the world community’s support in its fight against terror. “But let it be clear that we shall have to fight our own war against terror and we are doing that.”
At the same time, India would intensify efforts to redeem the UN, which was marginalized by the US-led war against Iraq, and to make the new world order fair and balanced. “Our concern (about the UN’s role) has deepened in the postwar period,” he said.
Speaking about the completion of over four years of the five-year term of his government, Vajpayee said the “unfortunate” sectarian violence that claimed about 1,000 lives in Gujarat last year was a period he would like to forget.
Vajpayee’s government, a coalition of two dozen disparate parties, is set to become the first non-Congress party administration to complete a full term, and the prime minister described this as a “landmark” marking the success of the “coalition experiment in Indian politics”.
He listed India’s emergence as a nuclear power, the holding of free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir last year and several developmental programs, including the national highway project, among the major achievements of his government.
Vajpayee also criticized the use of sectarian issues to divide the people.
“Democracy has no room for violence. Symbols of violence too should not figure in politics,” he said in response to a question about Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia distributing tridents at rallies and former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav’s efforts to counter Togadia.
Asked what he thought was good and bad about Indian politics, Vajpayee said: “The good thing is that the whole nation and political parties unite spontaneously in a moment of crisis. The bad thing is that political rivalry hits rock bottom some times.”
In another major development, diplomatic pressure has compelled Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to change his attitude toward Pakistan. Signaling his “positive” response to third peace initiative of India, Advani said yesterday: “Today, I want to emphasize that we are not asking them to abandon their views on Kashmir but change their views on terrorism.”
On board a special aircraft, he was speaking to reporters accompanying him on a visit to Bombay. Advani asserted that he does not expect this peace drive to fail like the Lahore or Agra summits. Saying that despite having serious differences on Kashmir, they will not hold peace to ransom.
