India and Doha meet

Sir,- This refers to C. Rammanohar Reddy's article `From WTC to WTO' (Sept. 29) wherein he rightly focuses our attention on the modified economic scenario in the aftermath of the September 11 attack. That the desire for economic remunerations has led to the extension of unequivocal support to the U.S. in the global fight against terrorism (including India's) is easily discernible even to the most unintelligible minds. The complete U-turn made by Gen. Pervez Musharraf and the emergence of Pakistan as the most unlikely ally of U.S. in this war against terrorism have nothing to do with the sudden abhorrence of the jehadis (who were patronised by the Pakistani regime for years) and their depraved crimes against humanity. Obviously these are part of some very smart political moves by the General to cash in on the unique geopolitical position of Pakistan for which he has been adequately rewarded.

The situation as pointed out by Mr. Reddy regarding the World Trade Organisation's Doha Ministerial meeting for India is extremely precarious. The cookie of convergent Third World interests carefully compiled by India seems to be crumbling away with many like-minded countries abandoning the fold. In these modified circumstances, where countries and organisations seem to be outdoing each other to elicit maximum economic, political and diplomatic mileage in the wake of the tragedy, India should very carefully make its moves to pursue our reservations about agricultural policies, labour laws and correction of existing inadequacies in the WTO agreements and safeguard the economic interests of our people. The need of the hour is display of political and diplomatic maturity by the Indian leaders to make the best of a bad bargain.

Nandita Sinha,

Varanasi, U.P.

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