MISHRA TO MEET RICE ON MONDAY

India takes high road on Musharraf bluster

Rohit Bansal

New Delhi, Sept 20: India showed restraint with Pakistan’s provocation, asking India to “lay off” on Afghanistan. Also, India chose to be understanding about US president George Bush’s “happiness” with Gen Musharraf’s performance, on what Pakistan was doing in the US hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

India’s restraint is ahead of National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra’s meeting with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice in Washington fixed on September 24. Mr Mishra spends the weekend in New York on UN-related work, and meeting the diaspora. On 24th he meets several key Washingtonians “inside the beltway”, in the State Department and the Department of Defense.

Ahead of the Mishra-Rice meet, the US has sent appreciative signals on India’s refusal to enter into “a bilateral scrap”, and external affairs minister Jaswant Singh’s manner of reiterating India’s locus standi on Afghanistan, including Laden’s relations with terrorist groups in J&K — including a Taliban call, asking them to return back for now.

The signals are that India should take note of President Bush’s remarks — embedded in his reaction to Gen Musharraf’s bluster — that all terrorists be de-linked from their sponsoring states.
“Continued maturity will be used to take the sting off Gen Musharraf’s remarks, aimed as they are for local Pakistani audience,” a government strategist explained.

“Mr Bush’s pats are his until he delivers. We are okay with that,” he said on India’s high road strategy.

US envoy Robert D Blackwill has held a — “America understands Islam is a religion of peace” — meeting, with 14 Islamic leaders here on Thursday, cancelling a meeting with the Imam of Jama Masjid. Mr Blackwill spoke of US commitment to gather all evidence — 25 per cent of FBI staff are on this task — and to share it with the world. “This isn’t a fight against Islam, but against terrorists..(and) the scourge of terrorism will be addressed globally,” said Mr Blackwill.

Those attending included M Obaidullah Khan Azmi, MP, M Mohd Ashfaque of the Jamait-e-Islami, former vice-chancellor Dr Mehmud-ur-Rehman of Aligarh Muslim University, chancellor Saiyyed Hamid of Hamdard University, vice-chancellor Siraj Hussain of Jamia Hamdard, and secretary Najamuddin Choidhury of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Conference.