Editorial (Spotlight Weekly)

The sudden volte face by the Indian Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to mend fences with his arch rival Pakistan is, nevertheless, quite a welcome development. No one need dispute the Pakistani assertion that there has been no external pressure on either country for this rapprochement since the outcome is supposed to be positive and beneficial even in the wider context. We personally feel quite gratified since our prognostications have almost hit the bull's eyes. Once the ice is broken, more talks are sure to follow between the two feuding countries resulting hopefully in some kind of understanding even though transitory. This scribe was highly impressed by the generous feeling manifested by Pakistani of all hues for the peoples of India during his recent sojourn there. The Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf too seemed very keen to normalize his country's relations with India. These kinds of attitude must have been primarily responsible for generating the genial atmosphere leading to ensuring dialogues. Whatever the reasons, whether covert pressures or over-riding compulsions, India relenting to restore full diplomatic relationship and the over-flying is an irrefutable testimony that the breakdown in normal relations has hurt her more than anybody else. Whether the summit meeting takes place soon or waits for some formal occasion like the SAARC Summit would not make any big material difference as long both the belligerents agree to bury the hatchet. The press conference of Pakistani Prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Tuesday has further elaborated Pakistan's viewpoints and sincerity for starting the bilateral dialogues. This thaw, however, in Indo-Pakistani relations has raised hopes in other smaller nations of south Asia that their big and domineering neighbor might become more reasonable and start generating more confidence amongst them by bringing a long and overdue change in their mindset. The Indians cannot fail to see beyond their horizon how trends in regional and global politics have taken a sudden turn emphasizing the fact that imperious behaviors end up in doom. Consequently, India as the largest and most powerful country has to bear the burden to usher in permanent peace and harmony in the region. This brings to the uppermost in our mind the perennially vexing problem of Kashmir, which is the root cause of unending acrimony between India and Pakistan which has proved the biggest stumbling block in the economic development of the region itself forcing the one and a half billion people to live in abject poverty. This makes it imperative for both the countries to forsake obduracy and sincerely work to reach a lasting understanding by granting the unfortunate people of Kashmir their birthright of choosing their own destiny in a free and fair plebiscite, the resolution for which has been unceremoniously shelved at the United Nations Secretariat. Failure to solve this nagging issue, even at this stage, has all the potentials of not only embroiling Kashmir in another disastrous catastrophe but also initiating third party intervention.

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The call for agitation given by the five disgruntled political parties is the most regressive step in the present political scenario in Nepal. Inciting the common man to go into direct confrontation with King Gyanendra at a time when the country has been heaving a sigh of relief after seven long years of bloody civil war is the biggest disservice these unscrupulous politicians could ever do to the country. As partners in crime against the state and the people during twelve long years of loot and maladministration, it seems being out of power for a few months has only whetted their greed for power and pelf to the extent of totally blinding their reason. With a strong government they would not be there to create further mischief to push the country to a greater destabilization. How concerned they are to safeguard the rights of the people would be crystal clear if one were to look back at the history of their corrupt administration. Will the poor people of Nepal again fall a prey to their guiles? They have burnt their fingers time and again and should no more permit themselves to be led astray by such crooks and quislings. These anti-national politicians have no qualms and always look for alien help to realize their nefarious objectives. Even this time they invited their mentor, S.D. Muni and made him spit venom against our revered institution of monarchy. Since we all know Muni as a sponger on the South Block, we do not attach any importance to his rantings. Nonetheless, we must not fail to educate other good friends about the realities and truths. The Maoist leaders have to be complimented for their wisdom in pinning their faith on King Gyanendra's repeated statements of his total commitment to constitutional monarchy. Their sagacity to see through the evil designs of the five discredited political parties, which is clearly manifested in their decision to sit in dialogues with the King's government, also deserves commendation. The prime imperative the country faces today is the early achievement of total peace the Maoist leaders and the government can gift the country. In this connection it may not be irrelevant to applaud the U.S. Ambassador Michael Malinowski on his forthright views on terrorism, democracy, corruption and constitutional monarchy in an interview on the NTV recently. We do trust he will not hesitate to extend his unstinted support to the peace negotiations so that the country may revert to full democratic regime through early general elections. As such, we do believe King Gyanendra will not procrastinate to announce the date for general elections as early as possible.