Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 12, 2001
Neither the government, nor the
NDA will sip tea at the Pakistan high commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi's
party in honour of President Pervez Musharraf. It was decided today to
boycott the tea party in protest against the exclusion of all from Jammu
and Kashmir, with the sole exception being the Hurriyat Conference.
In view of this decision, the main
opposition party, the Congress, too is reconsidering whether it should
accept Qazi's hospitality or not. Said senior party leader K Natwar Singh:
"We will reconsider it if the government is not going." At a meeting of
the NDA this evening, external affair minister Jaswant Singh announced
that no minister from lice government would be attending the party and
it would be left to a protocol officer to complete the formality.
Singh also told the meeting that
Jinnah House in Mumbai would not be handed over to the Pakistan government
for converting it into the Pakistan consulate.
Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer and
Joint Secretary Vivek Katju (Pakistan), who have also been invited - apart
from former prime ministers and former high commissioners - are also staying
away. While Chandra Shekhar and H. D. Deve Gowda have decided not to attend,
I. K. Gujral has "accepted the invitation as of now." The CPI, however,
said there had been no change "as of today" in their decision to attend
the party. "We are not aware who all have been invited or excluded. But
even if the Hurriyat alone has been invited from Kashmir, it doesn't mean
that we agree with Pakistan's view," CPI leader D. Raja said.
Referring to the talks, Jaswant
Singh said he as both foreign minister and defence minister, home minister
L.K. Advani, finance minister Yashwant Sinha and commerce minister Murasoli
Maran would be in the Vajpayee-led delegation which will have talks with
Musharraf and his team.
NDA convenor George Fernandes, when
asked who the ministers would talk to as Musharraf had not included their
counterparts in his delegation, said they would advise Vajpayee whenever
necessary during the talks.
The unanimous view among the NDA
partners, with the sole exception of Lok Jan Shakti leader Ram Vilas Paswan,
was that since neither the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir nor any
elected representative or leaders of political parties from the state had
been invited, the tea party should be boycotted.
"By inviting only the Hurriyat,
Pakistan wants to send the message that Hurriyat is the sole representative
of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. There is a method in this which is
not acceptable to us," Fernandes told reporters.
He however added "it is not a boycott
but an expression of our displeasure" over the Hurriyat being given primacy.
Asked if this would have any adverse impact on the dialogue between India
and Pakistan, he said: "There isn't anything in this which should impinge
on the success of Musharraf's visit."
It is learnt that the entire list
of invitees for the party is with the government and on that basis the
decision to stay away had been taken.
In fact, Fernandes himself had earlier
stated publicly that the tea party should not be made an issue but he reversed
his stand today. "Since the land on which embassies and high commissions
are located is considered to be their respective countries' territory,
I had said that who they invite is their business. But when it turned out
that barring the Hurriyat nobody had been invited, we decided against accepting
the invitation," he told reporters.
Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad
Yadav cautioned the meeting that the Hurriyat issue should be handled carefully
but agreed with the dominant view that the NDA constituents should stay
away from the party.