A 'new opportunity' for India, Pak.

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, JULY 13. Despite the escalating rhetoric on Jammu and Kashmir from across the border, India today chose to keep its cool and remain positive about the important but exasperating engagement with Pakistan this weekend.

As it prepared to roll out the red carpet to Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Saturday morning, India refused to be drawn into a war of words on Kashmir with the visiting Pakistan President.

Reflecting the quiet calm in the Government a day before Gen. Musharraf's arrival, the Foreign Office spokeswoman declared that the two nations stood ``on the threshold of a new opportunity'' for peace and progress.

The hopeful message from India, on a day when Gen. Musharraf seemed to trash the earlier agreements between the two nations at Shimla in 1972 and Lahore in 1999, appears to be part of a conscious strategy.

Informed sources here say India has made an overall assessment of its negotiating options on the eve of Gen. Musharraf's visit and is prepared for all outcomes at Agra. The sources add India is ``looking forward with hope and expectation'' to a successful summit between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Gen. Musharraf.

But, India was fully prepared for a failure of the Agra summit, if that was what Gen. Musharraf wanted. If the Pakistan President declared ``Kashmir or nothing'', it was said, ``he would indeed get nothing''.

Full state honours

First hints on what Gen. Musharraf's visit may lead to will be available tomorrow, as the two delegations feel each other out behind the booming guns and the razmatazz of the full state honours extended by India.

Summit level meetings between leaders are usually well prepared and the results pre-cooked. But the meeting between Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Vajpayee is almost like a blind date with all its uncertainties. The outcome hangs on the kind of chemistry that will develop between Mr. Vajpayee and Gen. Musharraf - two leaders who come from such different backgrounds. It will also depend on whether Mr. Vajpayee believes Gen. Musharraf is a trustworthy partner.

Gen. Musharraf's interaction with the entire top layer of the Indian state and Government tomorrow provides an opportunity to gauge the prospects of the summit. The President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, and the Vice- President, Mr. Krishan Kant, will exchange views with the Pakistani General on a broad range of themes of mutual interest.

It would, however, fall on the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, and the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, to convey to Gen. Musharraf, unambiguously, the Indian terms for a rapprochement with Pakistan.

And before the luncheon he is hosting in honour of the Pakistani leader, Mr. Vajpayee will have a few moments alone with Gen. Musharraf, where he will try to size him up quickly and correctly.

Vajpayee's hope

Behind all the rhetoric heard over the last week from Pakistan, Mr. Vajpayee expects Gen. Musharraf to hold some reserves of reason and pragmatism.

And if Gen. Musharraf is willing to turn a new leaf in the relations with India, Mr. Vajpayee is said to be ready to walk more than half the distance towards a new accommodation between the two nations.

At the heart of any understanding would be the creation of a framework that would address Pakistan's demand for substantive talks on Jammu and Kashmir and India's concerns about cross- border terrorism.

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