India-Pak semi-finals: All parties welcome cricket diplomacy

NEW DELHI: “What other story can be there today ? It’s just cricket. If you don’t love cricket, you don’t love life,” a Communist leader said on telephone just hours before the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan at Mohali. The political class, like all others , turned its focus on Mohali on Wednesday, leaving party offices deserted in the Capital.

Cutting across party lines, all— left, right and centre— welcomed cricket diplomacy and celebrated the game. Even the BJP, which is opposed to softening on delinking talks with terror, could not but say cricket diplomacy is fine. The CPM and CPI described it as a good initiative. However, the bonhomie ended there. The euphoria did not extend beyond the game as the Opposition asked the government to tread carefully when it came to talks.

“Cricket diplomacy is ok. It has evoked tremendous interest, but that does not mean anything substantial as far as India and Pakistan are concerned,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. Dubbing the home secretary-level talks as “nothing more than a verbal inching forward” , he said the test would be in the action.

“Till Pakistan starts dismantling the terror infrastructre, there would be no point,” he said. His party has cautioned the government against formal talks unless it gets an assurance from Islamabad that it would act fast enough on the Mumbai terror cases. CPM’s M K Pandhe said the issues cannot be tackled by cricket. “It’s just a game. We should treat it like that,” he said. However, he said talks were the only way to resolve the problems. “Dinner and cricket diplomacy is fine. We welcome it if there has been any progress in the home secretary level talks,” Pandhe said.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan too said several hurdles have to be crossed to resolve the problems between India and Pakistan. Welcoming the cricket diplomacy and talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the match. “It is a good initiative which will be a beginning for further talks,” said Bardhan while campaigning in Kerala.