PM, Gen talking again

HAVANA: The government, late Saturday night, described the Indo-Pak institutional mechanism on terrorism — the justification for New Delhi to heed General Pervez Musharraf regime’s desperate pleas to come to the negotiating table — as a major breakthrough. However, the contours of the mechanism remain enveloped in uncertainty to even those who conceived it.

This was evident when the foreign secretary-designate Shiv Shankar Menon interacted with reporters accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just after he read out the joint statement, announcing the institutional mechanism as the highlight. Mr Menon said it was too early to discuss the exact nature of the mechanism.

“Every issue on the subject will be taken up by the joint mechanism. We are trying through this mechanism to prevent terrorist incidents in the two countries. We want to see if certain forms of terrorism can be dealt with by this mechanism.”

While the determination to give the diplomatic innovation a try was palpable, the foreign secretary-designate did not seem sure whether it meant a paradigm shift in India’s counter-terror campaign.

Asked whether the agreement marks a formal jettisoning of India’s traditional grievance that it was a victim of terror sponsored by Pakistan, Mr Menon maintained that there has been no shift in India’s stand on terror. “The mechanism will identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations” was all that he was willing to say.

This is understandable as any acceptance of a paradigm shift will expose the government to attack from its political rivals. The Opposition back home has been alleging that the government was being too soft on Pakistan.

That the government was willing to take the risk was evident when Mr Menon defended the mechanism saying “we can’t go back in time.” He said the two sides were “breaking new grounds to tackle the menace of terrorism.”

Mr Menon was not willing to lay the blame of the Mumbai bombings at Pakistan’s doorstep. The foreign-secretary designate said that India had not blamed Pakistan for the blasts. “Government of India didn’t blame Pakistan. Government is still investigating the blasts. Our stance is that we need to tackle terrorism, whatever the source,” Mr Menon said.

At the same time, Mr Menon made it clear that India will not forgo its right to act against the terror campaign on its own. He admitted that the mechanism cannot be insulated against adverse public opinion in the event of terror strikes. “We can’t give guarantees,” he said.