June 7, 2002	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25,1423

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NEW DELHI, June 6: India has baffled its foreign interlocutors by proposing the idea of a joint-patrolling of the volatile Line of Control in Kashmir with Pakistan one day and denying the next day that such an offer was ever made, diplomats said on Thursday.

Press Trust of India quoted Defence Minister George Fernandes as doing a veritable U-turn on the suggestion by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Almaty that the arch foes could revive a previously discussed idea of joint-patrolling along the LoC to check and monitor cross-border infiltration.

Vajpayee’s offer made in the glare of TV cameras has already been celebrated by the Indian media as a diplomatic coup against President Pervez Musharraf’s perceived stubbornness over the question of infiltration in Kashmir.

“It’s not that the prime minister has made the proposal. He has only said India would have to look at it,” Fernandes told reporters in New Delhi.

PTI quoted him as not only denying that India had made an offer to Pakistan for joint patrolling along the border to check infiltration but said the defence minister thought such an idea was not apparently workable.

Vajpayee had ruled out a third-party monitoring of the LoC but there were some reports on Thursday that the United States could propose a monitoring mechanism of the Kashmir ceasefire line with helicopter-borne military observers from Britain and the United States.

Fernandes’ remarks appeared to have embarrassed the government and prompted an immediate clarification.

Asserting that Fernandes was not against the proposal for joint patrolling of the Line of Control with Pakistan, the government on Thursday said he had no difference of opinion on the issue with Prime Minister Vajpayee.

“The government is one on the issue. The defence minister agrees with the prime minister and there is no difference of opinion between them,” an external affairs ministry spokesperson said when asked about Fernandes’ reported remarks that the proposal was not feasible.

She said there was “nothing in Fernandes’ statement to indicate that he was against the proposal”.

Describing as a “very serious, major and significant” the initiative of joint patrolling taken by Vajpayee, she said: “If Pakistan is serious about its commitment to stop terrorism and control infiltration and to allow for a verification of the situation on the ground, then joint patrolling is the best, most practical and most ‘doable’ way to handle this.”

“Now it depends on Pakistan’s reaction. The response has to come from there,” she added.

Other members of the government intervened on the issue.

“We have asked Islamabad to put an end to the terror machine operating from its soil and part of Kashmir illegally occupied by it. What is Pakistan waiting for now? It should do so and come to the negotiating table,” Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah was quoted by Star News as saying.

Rejecting Pakistan’s demand that New Delhi should formally put its proposal for joint patrolling of LoC in bilateral talks, he emphasized that the premier had conveyed the proposal in the knowledge of several world leaders present in Almaty.

Slamming the proposal for a neutral observer monitoring the infiltration along the LoC, he said: “Why should we? We have a proposal for joint patrolling with Pakistani forces. It is Islamabad which is hiding something by not agreeing and not us.”