Political comments abroad are bad publicity for India

MAINLINE PARTIES TAKING DOMESTIC BATTLES OFFSHORE IS AN UNPRECEDENTED LOW...DIFFICULT TO RECALL INSTANCES OF LEADERS WASHING DIRTY LINEN

Looking back, the Indian script that defeated the Pakistani plot could be a study in the diplomatic value of national unity in the face of adversity.

A newly elected Benazir Bhutto then told her countrymen that the Kashmir resolution at UNHRC was withdrawn on the advice of China (which actually lent an ear to New Delhi as it had its own issues with the West on human rights).

Another illustration of such healthy consensus was what VP Singh told me during a visit to Pakistan in 1992.

On Benazir Bhutto’s invitation, he had attended a conference of the Opposition leaders of SAARC countries in Karachi. Thereafter, he was to be the guest of the Pakistan government for meetings with president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad.

But the communiqué adopted at the conclave had critiqued “parallel centers of power” in democratic set-ups. That was seen as a veiled attack on president Ishaq Khan at Benazir Bhutto’s behest, provoking the host government to cancel the official leg of his visit.

VP Singh broke the news to me over the phone from Karachi. “Could it be the result of some string-pulling by Narasimha Rao?” I asked.

Singh immediately rejected the possibility: “That cannot be….we’re one people after leaving India’s shores.”

A lesson that, for the current crop of leaders.

vinodsharma@hindustantimes.com