Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 3: Former Foreign Secretary MK Rasgotra has disclosed that India and Pakistan had agreed on a peace and no-war treaty and were on the verge of signing it in July 1984 before Pakistan President Zia ul-Haq, who had even dismissed any need to discuss Kashmir, but backtracked on advice of American lawmakers.
Rasgotra, who was Foreign Secretary between 1982 and 85 and is now in his nineties, has recalled ahead of his visit to Islamabad, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was leaving on a visit to the US, gave him a free hand, telling him "...you know it all and you can talk to them about any subject they want to talk about, including Kashmir and the No War Pact they are so keen about". She only wanted to know if "there is a grain of sincerity" in Gen. Zia.
Rasgotra said when he called on him at the President's House in Islamabad, President Zia welcomed him with a big hug. Rasgotra has said: "During the talks, to India's willingness to talk about Kashmir, Zia's response was 'noteworthy". "Rasgotra Sahib, what is there to talk about Kashmir? You have Kashmir and we cannot take it. I want you and (Pakistani foreign secretary) Niaz Naik to work on a Treaty of Peace and Good Neighbourliness including a No War Pact," Rasgotra has quoted the Pakistani leader as saying.
Rasgotra further disclosed that "progress was made in discussions on the agreement, to the extent that in March 1984, Niaz Naik himself proposed that the Indian draft of a Treaty of Peace and Friendship and Pakistan's draft of a 'No War Pact' should be merged". By May 1984, there was "full agreement on all the six or seven clauses in the draft treaty's preamble and also on nine out of the eleven articles of the treaty's operative part", and both sides reached agreement on these two too, Rasgotra has claimed.
"Accordingly, Naik announced in the final plenary meeting of the two delegations that on clauses IV and V, he and I (Rasgotra) had reached an understanding to which he would obtain the president's approval on his return from the UAE and we would all meet in Delhi in July to initial or sign the treaty," said Rasgotra, adding "but the July meeting never took place."
As per Rasgotra, "there were two reasons why Zia changed his mind and the primary one was the advice of his American well-wishers".
"While awaiting the President's return from the UAE, Naik had telegraphed the text to Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan who was on a visit in Washington DC. Khan took the text around to his friends in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, who strongly advised him against signing a treaty of that kind with India," disclosed Rasgotra.
Rasgotra has claimed that "he learnt of this from a Congressman friend of his, from his earlier stints in the US, and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee 'asking me why we were 'coercing Pakistan' into signing an anti-American treaty!" "The other reason", according to Rasgotra, "was India's current troubles in Punjab 'in which Zia-ul Haq saw an opportunity to weaken India by supporting a violent secessionist campaign by Sikh extremist groups lead by Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale…"
On Zia himself, Rasgotra has said that "he reported to Mrs Gandhi after his first visit and meeting that he had seemed anxious to win India's goodwill, I had my doubts about his sincerity".
Rasgotra, in a report of his meeting with then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in 2000 has said: This "Pakistani ruler was "shrewd, and perhaps also not without cunning but he is not wily like Gen. Zia ul Haq. Nor does he possess the bluff exuberance of Gen. Mod. Ayub Khan".
On his recommendations, Rasgotra has said his "gut impression" was that Pakistan will give up sponsorship of violence only when we (India) can demonstrate, in actual deeds, that we can hurt them in POJK (Pakistan-ocupied-Jammu and Kashmir) the same way they are hurting us in the Valley".
Three things are noteworthy. One, Pakistan President Zia ul-Haq was prepared to forget this part of Jammu and Kashmir and was also prepared for a no-war treaty with India. Two, had some American lawmakers not influenced the Pakistan's foreign policy towards India, things today in the region would have been somewhat different. Three, if India is to defeat Pakistan and its evil machinations, it has to act in POJK like Pakistan has been acting in this part of the state and fomenting troubles for the nation. |
