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ShareSonia Gandhi's cleverly worded speech to the Congress Parliamentary Party on July 30 was widely interpreted as backing for the PM on his Pakistan initiative. A closer reading of her speech tells a different story. The relevant paragraph speaks for itself. "The prime minister has made a firm and unequivocal statement in the Lok Sabha yesterday on all major foreign policy issues, in particular, our relations with Pakistan. No one should be in any doubt on our party's position vis-a-vis Pakistan. It remains unchanged. We support the resumption of the dialogue process with Pakistan, but only after it has demonstrated its seriousness to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice and to prevent its territory from being used to launch terror attacks on any part of our country."
By restricting herself to reiterating the party's position on talks with Pakistan, she firmly separated the Congress from the government. There was no mention of the joint statement, nor did she endorse the PM's fervent plea for dialogue and engagement as the "best way forward". Significantly, she also avoided commenting on the Pak dossier, which the PM had dubbed the game changer in the three weeks between his very different encounters with Pakistan president Asif Zardari in Russia and prime minister Yousuf Gilani in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
But it was the number 2 man in the cabinet, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who bowled the googly. A couple of hours after Sonia's studious distancing from the government's Pakistan policy, Mukherjee made an intervention in the Lok Sabha that left many guessing about his real meaning. It was a ferocious attack on the Opposition but the subtext was replete with innuendos. Two quotes are particularly telling. "India's foreign policy is not the whims and caprices of individuals or that of even a single party. (It) is embedded in the basic fundamentals of our 5,000 years old civilisation.... That can never be altered,'' he declared. Was this a lakshman rekha, not just for the Opposition but for his prime minister as well?
More hard-hitting was an out-of-the-blue reference to the 1938 Munich Pact signed by the then British PM Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler."You did it (talk to Pakistan); India did it; UPA did it; and this is the process through which world diplomacy moves. Everybody knew that -- before the Second World War when Chamberlain entered into the Munich Pact --it is not going to succeed, it is not going to keep Adolf Hitler happy, but at the same time, it was considered necessary to have that, because they thought that the last effort should be made to save the world from the impending Second World War," Mukherjee said.
Students of history are well acquainted with the fallout of the Munich Agreement, regarded as one of the worst diplomatic blunders of the 20th century. An unabashed subscriber to what he called the policy of appeasement, Chamberlain returned to England after signing the pact with Hitler and delivered his famous "Peace for our time" speech. As events proved later, Hitler stomped all over the agreement and very soon, Europe was in the throes of World War II. Chamberlain had to resign a broken man and was succeeded by his main rival, Winston Churchill.
The meaning of Mukherjee's remarks is open to interpretation. But surely, a man, whose encyclopaedic knowledge is legendary in political circles, cannot be unaware of the construct that would be put on the historical reference he chose to make in the context of the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement. Nor would his cautious nature allow him to overstep the party line.
The few parliamentarians who caught on to what Mukherjee said are wondering whether there was a hidden note of caution for Manmohan Singh as he tackles the biggest diplomatic challenge of his second term in office. The pressures on India to re-engage with Pakistan and possibly settle the Kashmir dispute will mount as the US attempts to reorder the security architecture in the region. Unfortunately our relationship with our western neighbour is almost a domestic political issue and has to be handled with care. By distancing themselves from the joint statement, the senior leadership of the Congress has made it clear that they are not ready to pay the price for unilateralism on Pakistan.
