kind of ironic, but Vajpayee;s government owes Musharraf a lot;
Is Musharraf lucky for the BJP?
January 22, 2004
Islamabad was full of hope and joy two weeks ago. We were singing songs of peace with our Indian journalist friends who came down to cover the SAARC conference. Unfortunately, the level of hope is coming down dangerously.
There are two reasons for the growing disappointmentin Islamabad.
One: Three rounds of talks between India and Pakistan on the construction of the Baglihar power plant on the Chenab river failed in Islamabad last week. Pakistan believes the construction of a power plant in Kashmir is a violation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty and will reduce the quantity of water flowing into Pakistan. India disagrees. Both countries were inflexible.
Second: New Delhi has not permitted Amarinder Singh, chief minister of the Indian Punjab, to visit Lahore. Singh was invited by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, chief minister of Pakistani Punjab, to participate in an international Muslim-Sikh conference in Lahore.
Despite all these disappointments, Kuldip Nayar was very happy but he was not telling us why. He arrived in Islamabad two weeks after the SAARC summit and met Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and ‘others,’ quietly, much like India’s National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra did before the SAARC conference. His old friend Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan broke the story of his quiet arrival to select journalists. These six journalists including myself met Mr Nayar at Chaudhrysahib’s home over dinner.
Mr Nayar regaled us with stories about his encounters with Pakistan’s first military dictator General Ayub Khan and later prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He tried to convince us that peace moves have been initiated many times before but this time “we are heading in the right direction.” I reminded him, “You said the same thing after the Lahore declaration was signed by Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee.” He ignored my comment and forced me to laugh at some interesting jokes about Nawaz Sharif.
He said – with much joy – that India’s Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani had welcomed President Musharraf’s address to the joint session of our parliament. This is a very important development, Mr Nayar said. We asked him why Musharraf had not mentioned his meeting with Vajpayee in his speech, why he had not taken parliament into confidence about his peace steps? “We are dealing with a military man,” Mr Nayar said, “not with your parliament. This is your problem, not ours.”
** “Some people in the BJP want to deal only with Musharraf,” he felt. “He started the Kargil war in 1999 and the BJP increased its tally by more than 70 seats in the Lok Sabha in the October 1999 election. This year Musharraf started a peace process and the BJP expects a further increase in its tally because of peace. No doubt, Musharraf is lucky for them.” **