Bush silence on Kashmir worries PMO

[Guest guest]

Bush silence on Kashmir worries PMO

New Delhi, Jan. 13: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and US

President-elect George W Bush have still to make official contact

after the Florida judgement.

Delhi is still guessing about the US tilt towards the region under

the Bush administration with the Foreign Office still not sure

whether to be happy or worried about the complete silence on India,

Pakistan and the "hottest troublespot in the region" Kashmir. Bush

and his policy makers General Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice have

given no indication about their policy towards India and Pakistan.

 

Foreign Office officials and expert advisors are divided in their

responses, with the Prime Minister's Office optimistic that recently

established relations with the US will not be affected adversely.

 

However, there is a division in the views available with the PMO with

a minority of foreign policy experts apprehensive that the Indian

honeymoon with President Bill Clinton might not extend to his

successor.

 

The last effective communication between Vajpayee and Bush was when

the two spoke over the telephone during the Prime Minister's visit to

the US last September.

 

At the time Bush expressed his inability to make a detour in his

campaign trail to meet the visiting Indian Prime Minister. A meeting

reportedly confirmed for September 5 in New York was cancelled last

year following a change in Vajpayee's schedule due to ill health.

Vajpayee has sent a letter congratulating Bush on his election.

 

Significantly, although US officials here point out that the

President-elect is too busy in making appointments and setting up the

new administration there has not been a single policy reference to

Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations by the Republicans.

 

Senator Arnold Specter, who is also a member of the Senate Judiciary

committee, was in Delhi recently and met Minister of External Affairs

Jaswant Singh and Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh.

 

He was quoted as expressing concern about the violence against

Christians in the country. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister,

Brajesh Mishra met Rice last year. He was reportedly introduced to

her by influential NRIs although he has still to follow up on this

contact.

 

Rice while very eloquent on US relations with Russia, China and West

Asia has not made her mind known about Kashmir or Indo-Pak tension.

Powell too has not said a word leading to a sense of unease in Delhi

with officials still unsure of the new administration's policy

towards this region