Missing the point

What was planned as a great meeting of minds between Indian and Pakistan media bigwigs, was far from that. They came as strangers, and left not much different.

The pick of Indian journalists— from the nationalist right to the liberal left, print to broadcast, and English to Hindi—all of 45 of them were there in Islamabad, warmed up and waiting to take a message back to the Indian public from General Parvez Musharraf, CEO of Pakistan. The South Asia Media Conference of 1-2 July was a coup of a public relations opportunity for a leader whose militarist image has legitimised the righteous official Indian stance of "no talks" with a man whose "hands are stained with (Kargil) blood". Here was the opportunity to make a symbolic unilateral gesture, to appeal directly to the Indian people, cutting across the bigoted bureaucracies on both sides.

But the General is not a man who values symbolic gestures. Indeed his belittling of Indian Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee´s gesture of visiting the Minar-I-Pakistan in Lahore in February 1999, queered the pitch of his 90 minutes exchange with the visiting media. Vajpayee´s visit to the monument which stands on the plain outside Lahore Fort had been an affirmation of India´s recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign independent state. It provoked a barrage of criticism against Vajpayee from ultra-nationalists at home. The General was miserly with his acknowledgement, "Vajpayee´s going to the Minar-I-Pakistan was a symbolic gesture, but what if the real issue is not touched? It puts one´s sincerity in doubt if the core issue of Kashmir is not resolved."