K. K. Katyal
The Hindu
June 3, 1999
Title: Pakistan action a misadventure: Jaswant Author: K. K. Katyal Publication: The Hindu Date: June 3, 1999 NEW DELHI, JUNE 2. The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, today said that his Pakistan counterpart, Mr. Sartaj Aziz, will be told emphatically that the restoration of the status quo ante (the pre-incursion position) is the only way of defusing tension in the Kargil area. Mr. Aziz will come here shortly, though the date of the visit is yet to be finalised. He had described the ``lowering of temperature'' as the immediate purpose of the proposed trip. According to Mr. Jaswant Singh the Pakistani action in Kargil was a ``misadventure that they have entered into. It has invited international disapproval. Militarily it is a blind alley.'' In an interview today, Mr. Jaswant Singh left little doubt about the parameters of the forthcoming discussion with Mr. Aziz. It is to be confined to the situation in Kargil and he will put across the Indian viewpoint thus: ``Pakistan must withdraw from the areas it has illegally entered. Tension will subside.'' The importance attached by India to this issue was evident from his observation: ``It is an armed intrusion amounting to aggression. Aggressors shall be defeated. Inviolability of the Line of Control has to be preserved.'' He would emphasise, he said, the central point - ``withdraw, withdraw, withdraw''. To bring out the unmaintainability of the Pakistan action in sending armed personnel to occupy high-altitude areas in Kargil, he said: ``There are many uninhabited parts in Jammu and Kashmir. We could do likewise.'' That was his cautious way of saying that India could have occupied some such areas in the Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK) but had not done so (because of its regard for international norms). He was asked whether diplomacy could be of any use in the situation of the type, now obtaining in Kargil, where Pakistan had sent bands of armed intruders, while maintaining the fiction that they were ``Kashmiri freedom fighters'', not under its control. Mr. Jaswant Singh replied: ``Diplomacy and ground action have to work together in unison like two hands of a body.'' There would be no let- up in ground and air operations, even when talks are held (with Mr. Aziz). This was in keeping with the Indian position, as conveyed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, to his Pakistani opposite number, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, that there could not be any pre-conditions for the talks. At one stage, Mr. Nawaz Sharif wanted India to end air strikes before the talks could start. Discussing the importance of combined diplomatic-cum-military steps in a wider context, he said: ``Militarily, ground operations will continue. Diplomatically, it is for the first time that India has total international support. Pakistan's aim to internationalise the issue has failed. Militarily, too, Pakistan's aim has failed. Without the fulcrum of Dras, the incursion had been reduced (to occupation of disjointed heights).'' He, however, did not want to minimise the gravity of the problem. Mr. Jaswant Singh drew attention to the expression of support to India's stand - that the present situation had arisen because of Pakistani infiltration into the Indian territory - by major countries, the U.S., France, U.K., Russia, the European Union. China, too, had emphasised the case for restraint and solution of the problem between India and Pakistan through dialogue. None of the P-5, thus, favoured internationalisation - ``We have to continue to carry conviction with others,'' Mr. Jaswant Singh said. He, obviously, had in mind behind-the-scene exhortations by major Powers to Pakistan to bring back the intruders, when he expressed satisfaction at the response of the world community. How did he see the Kargil case in the context of the Lahore Declaration and the bus diplomacy? ``Kargil is an aberration and aberrations do not define strategy. The Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration (which spelt out strategic objectives), are not rendered invalid by the aberrant behaviour of Pakistan.'' He recalled the Jammu killings, at the time of Mr. Vajpayee's stay in Lahore, and happenings in that city and said: ``All these were aberrations. What we now have is a large aberration. It will have to be defeated.''
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