Pakistan State Terror diluted by Joint Statement

click picture for readable versionDear All,
My article, "CHECKMATED AGAIN" is placed below. It has been published in the 'Mail Today' of 23 July 09; a few portions have been edited. Copy of the Mail Today piece is as above.
Regards
sd/... Vijay Oberoi

CHECKMATED AGAIN By Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi
Pakistan has a knack of ensuring that joint statements or other formal documents signed between India and Pakistan are favourable to its interests. Either our diplomats are no match to their Pakistani counterparts or the other influential members of the PM core group (I nearly wrote coterie!) are over-ruling them. Some say it is the PM himself who forces the issue, but I have my doubts on this score. Whoever may be responsible for the major faux pas of Sharm el-Sheikh, one thing is certain; Pakistan has again got the better of India, by ensuring the inclusion of at least three issues, which are contrary to our long standing policies vis-à-vis that country. It is no wonder that now the PM as well as the government are on the defensive in India, while the equivalent of the ‘bubbly’ is being savoured in Pakistan.

Comparisons they say are odious, but one does get a sense of déjà vu, as a similar blunder was committed at Shimla in 1972, the consequences of which are still haunting us. In Shimla, we succumbed to the promises and blandishments of the senior Bhutto, although the then PM, Indira Gandhi, was not naïve in any sense. Passage of time will no doubt tell us who or who all were responsible for the disastrous joint statement this time. However, one is tempted to state that if ‘war is too important a matter to be left to the military’, as Georges Clemenceau had said, any discussion with Pakistan is also ‘too important to be left to our diplomats and pseudo security experts’, while the military is kept out of the loop. Indira Gandhi made the same mistake and before her that capable PM, Lal Bahadur Shastri at Tashkent and lost out to the wily Pakistanis’. Successive governments, irrespective of their political affiliations, have followed this, much to the disadvantage of the nation.

There are three obvious blunders in the joint statement......
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