Breaking bread with Pervez

But is the general ready to do business?

GENERAL Pervez Musharraf’s televised meeting with Indian editors was remarkable for the many insights it provided, not least about Pakistan’s president himself. For one it was an unusual opportunity to see how misunderstandings between Indian and Pakistani leaders arise and multiply. Sushma Swaraj was clearly wrong to omit mention of Kashmir when she briefed the media about the first day’s summit talks. It was a piece of disinformation unworthy of the minister. But the Pakistanis were perhaps a bit too quick to seize this as an opportunity to drive home their familiar point about Kashmir being central to any agreement that may emanate from Agra. For the general, the summit was a chance to contrast plain-speaking and, by implication, honest Pakistan with devious double-speaking India.

In the circumstances it was hard to fault him. The exasperation he expressed about an attitude to the peace process characterised by the refusal to use the word ‘dispute’ in relation to Kashmir is also shared by many Indians. He saw this as a flight from reality and claimed to be genuinely concerned that Indian leaders were unable to tell their own people exactly what was going on. Of course he exaggerates but the semantic difficulties Indian governments have in describing the Kashmir situation and communicating changing concepts are obvious and worry Indians as well. Even so, there is nothing like the conspiracy of silence on Kashmir the general thinks there is and he was put right on that score.

Some of the positions Musharraf took in public may not be dissimilar to those he took when closeted with A.B. Vajpayee. He would surely have spoken frankly to Vajpayee as he did to the editors about the constraints sensitivities in Pakistan impose. It is noteworthy that he said it was impossible to get ‘‘ a hundred per cent consensus’’ in Pakistan on the peace process but asserted he was prepared to go ahead despite that. It was a virtuoso performance in other ways too: a pained pause and gesture when his trustworthiness was questioned, generous praise for India’s prime minister and the hospitality he had received. The overwhelming impression is that this is a confident Pakistani leader fully in control of his agenda.

He was absolutely unmoveable on Kashmir linking it with every aspect of the India-Pakistani relationship. But the way he put the approach to a resolution was significant. First, he did not insist, at the press conference at least, on Kashmir first and then everything else but went along with the formula that Kashmir be taken up in tandem with economic and confidence-building and other measures.

On the other hand, he insists the next step in the peace process must be India’s acknowledgement that there is a dispute in Kashmir and the dispute is with Pakistan. He was not forthcoming on the reasons why he thought the time had come for India to actually take the next step in precisely that way. But this much seems clear: he evidently does not share the sentiments of those he alluded to in Pakistan who are unconvinced about India’s intentions and believe the peace process is about buying time. Despite some wariness, Musharraf thinks he can do business with India.