NEW DELHI
: Two days into an annual conference of India's envoys in the capital has seen a reverberating silence into the UPA government's most
recent foreign policy affair. There has been no reference to, and almost no questions asked, about the India-Pakistan joint statement at Sharm el-Sheikh, which raised a political firestorm in the country only weeks ago. Interestingly, though privately Indian ambassadors repeatedly refer to the joint statement, at the envoys' conclave there has been a remarkable lack of curiosity about the event.
On Tuesday, the ambassadors gathered together for a pow-pow on India's neighbourhood policy. Initially Pakistan was not even on the agenda, which only goes to show what everyone has always suspected, that India's policy on Pakistan is driven by domestic politics and domestic imperatives.
But later the agenda was amended to include Pakistan and it was left to the ambassadors to grill India's high commissioner to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal about Pakistan. The general consensus after the discussion seemed to point to the fact that despite recent events of Pakistan forces going after the Tehrik-e-Taliban, there was no change in their attitude towards India.
Neither the Prime Minister nor the foreign minister, in their speeches, referred to Sharm el-Sheikh. The only person to make an honest reference to it was National Security Adviser MK Narayanan. In his remarks on Monday, Narayanan clarified that Sharm el-Sheikh did not signify any substantive change in India's approach to Pakistan. He also made it clear that there would be no talks with Pakistan until there was action against India-specific terrorists in Pakistan.
In an interview on Tuesday, foreign minister SM Krishna emphasised the UPA government's inflexibility on Pakistan and terrorism.
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