Envoys to learn Baloch line

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao will address a three-day conference of Indian ambassadors and heads of missions in the capital around the third week of August, her first since her promotion. The conclave will give Rao the opportunity to relay the government line on Balochistan.

The PM too might use it to explain in greater detail the compulsions behind the Indo-Pak joint statement signed in Sharm El-Sheikh.

There has been much heartburn over the statement. In private, many diplomats admit that New Delhi had long resisted attempts by Pakistan to bring Balochistan to the table and nail India for the disturbances there.

“What was the need to bring the B-word in the joint statement? Is there something the PM knows that we don’t?” a senior IFS officer said.