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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JPR who wrote (10730)	2/19/2000 4:34:00 AM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 12475

India has no choice but to keep raising the bogey of Pakistan, in a desperate to hang together. But the ploy will turn stale within a decade and the centrifugal forces will get stronger and stronger with each passing year.

To: JPR who wrote (10730)	2/19/2000 10:59:00 AM
From: JPR	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

White House reception for 20 Indians Pak supporters write to Clinton pleading for visit Chidanand Rajghatta WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 18: Amid transparent signs now from India that it will resent a Presidential stopover in Pakistan, Islamabad's lobbyists and supporters in Washington have stepped up their campaign to force the White House to make a positive call by raising the bogey of war in the region. Six Congressmen rushed a letter to Clinton on Thursday urging him to ``reconsider your present inclination not to include Pakistan" in a South Asia trip. They said the tension in Kashmir had reached the level of actual hostility and a failure to meet Pakistani officials might constitute a setback to US ability to play a mediatory role. The letter was signed by Michigan Congressman David Bonior and five other lawmakers, an unusually small number for a 435-strong house. But Congressional aides said the letter was circulated only on Wednesday with a 5 pm deadline for signatures, leading to speculation that the White House was making the final decision on Pakistan, the answer was "no go," and something had to be done in a hurry. In fact, the draft letter requested Clinton to "reconsider" his "tentative decision" not to go to Pakistan. The Congressmen were also unsparing about the events in Pakistan and the nature of its establishment, but they urged Clinton to go in the interest of cooling tempers in the region. The lawmakers said they did not condone or overlook the coup and they ``completely understand" if US intelligence advisers had pointed to connections between the Pakistan Government and the hijacking. But absent a public confirmation of the nexus, "there is a tremendous value in including Pakistan in the trip," they argued. The letter came even as reports from India suggested Prime Minister Vajpayee has spoken out directly against the Pakistan stopover. His comment to the French newspaper Le Figaro that "a visit to Pakistan while this country is under military dictatorship and sponsors Islamic terrorism around the world would be very badly received by Indian public opinion," was quoted by the media here, as also his contention that other countries "would not be allowed to meddle in our bilateral relations of problems." The push for a Pakistan stopover is also coming from within the administration. In her remarks at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appeared to dilute the benchmarks Washington had set for Musharraf's military junta to enable a presidential visit. She twice referred to the local body election the regime had announced, suggesting that it was making some progress in introducing democracy. A Pakistan cabinet minister was also in town on early in the week canvassing for a Presidential stopover. Omar Asghar Khan, whose ministerial charge includes overseas Pakistanis, was busy drumming up support of the Pakistani community in the US but did not get a hearing at the State Department or the White House. However, Khan told Pakistani activists and journalists that the military regime was introducing grassroots democracy and disarming militant groups in Pakistan, a claim that was received skeptically by the administration. While New Delhi has carefully articulated its views on the Pakistan stopover by suggesting it may cause public outrage across the country, the Indian embassy here has taken a decidedly low-key approach, leaving all the lobbying to the scores of Congressmen who are members of the India Caucus. Congressional aides said they could easily drum up over 100 signatures asking Clinton not to visit Pakistan. Some Congressmen have already written the President warning against a Pakistan stopover. In fact, some Congressional staffers were annoyed at what they said was the "slow-moving and fatalistic attitude" of the Indian Government and its embassy. "They have to be more active and forceful in opposing the stopover. When the President went to China, he did not stop in Taiwan or Japan. If this administration is serious about not treating India and Pakistan as Siamese twins as they have promised, this is the time to show it," an aide said. While the suspense over the Pakistan leg continues, there were reports today that the White House was considering some sequential changes in the South Asia schedule. One possibility is that the President may first visit Bangladesh before coming to India to allow for a stopover in Pakistan on his way back, sources said. The President meantime stepped up his efforts to interact with the Indian community ahead of his long-planned trip. The White House has scheduled a reception on February 24 of some 20 prominent Indian community leaders in the United States. Prominent Silicon Valley tech stars like Kanwal Rekhi and Vinod Khosla are expected to attend the event.