It's an irony that has escaped our mush media and purblind prime minister. The fact is that just a day before India decided to invite Pakistan's chief executive for talks, his commerce minister had flatly rejected our visiting businessmen's demand for granting Most Favoured Nation status. Why, on the very day that our waning PM's pen was waxing eloquent about 'the high road to peace', the general himself had refused to meet a delegation of SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry that included an Indian team.

The fact is that the Government of India, having unilaterally accorded MFN status to Pakistan in the mindless manner of Vajpayee's unilateral 'cease-fire' last November, has been asking Islamabad for a reciprocal gesture. The potential trade between the two countries is being projected at $10 billion a year as against the present official trade of $150-200 million.

The fact, again, is that Islamabad's standard response has been that the question of MFN status to India is linked to resolution of all disputes with New Delhi, including the "core issue" of what it erroneously calls Kashmir instead of Jammu & Kashmir.

rest of the article is at http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/jun/12arvind.htm

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