Mr Tharoor, semantics won't help

NEW DELHI: South Block has now come out with a curious interpretation of the Indo-Pakistan joint statement. Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor told reporters on Thursday that the joint statement was not a ���legal document but just a diplomatic paper.���

The Tharoor argument, if invoked by the government, could expose it to ridicule. For, the joint statements between the principals of the two nations have been the reference point for Indo-Pak dealings. The 2004 joint statement that got Islamabad to commit to cessation of anti-India terror activities on its soil between the then prime minister A B Vajpayee and Pervez Musharraf has been the basis of the negotiations between the two sides.

Mr Tharoor went several steps ahead to downgrade the status of the joint statement. He advised reporters not to go by the ���perception of words on paper���. ���It���s all very well for the people to say that somehow India���s interest was compromised by a few words on a piece of paper that is not a legal document. It is a diplomatic paper that is released to the press, different from the legal papers,��� said Mr Tharoor. ``Ultimately what matters is not the perception of words on paper, it is the conduct of government,��� he added.

The alleged dossier from Pakistan detailing India���s `subversive activities��� in Balochistan and involvement in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team also evoked similar reactions from the South Block. Even though the denials of the alleged dossier came in fast and furious, it hasn���t helped the government���s case as different players came up with different versions.

On his part, Mr Tharoor admitted that he had not seen the dossier. ���I have not seen the dossier myself. If there is a dossier, then I am sure that competent colleagues in my ministry are looking at it and when they have studied it, we will have a suitable response.���

Even as Mr Tharoor denied knowledge of the Pak dossier, the Prime Minister���s Office and the other junior minister in the ministry of external affairs were active denying the existence of the Pak dossier.

Pakistan���s leading daily, The Dawn, said that it stood by its report and that said it was certain that a dossier was handed over by Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Mr Singh during the meeting in Egypt.

Minister of state for external affairs Parneet Kaur was the only one on record to say that India has not received any dossier from Pakistan: ���No such dossier was given in Egypt...it is entirely wrong.��� She also defended the prime minister over the inclusion of Balochistan in the Indo-Pak joint statement.

���It was only mentioned that Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani voiced some concern that the PM said that he had no problem in addressing, since we had everything in an open book. And we certainly have not been doing anything (there),��� she told reporters. Incidentally neither of the two junior ministers have Pakistan in the brief.