July 25, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14,1423

NEW DELHI: The American administration’s recent decision to amend its travel advisory liberalizing its rather terse and forbidding advise to travellers from venturing to India may well be interpreted to mean a change in the administration’s perception of a lessening of the threat of conflict between India and Pakistan.

Coming as it does a few days in advance of the visit of the high-ranking official of the administration, Richard Armitage, following the recent visit to India and Pakistan of the British Defence Secretary, Jack Straw, this development seems to indicate a new Anglo-American attempt to bring about a deescalation of the tension between India and Pakistan.

As a consequence of the American reversal of its travel advisory, other Western powers have followed suite. Both Germany and France have similarly modified or abandoned their travel advisories. So too the Britain.

India, which had been hurt by the American advisory, has naturally welcomed the decision.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), which accounts for about 63 per cent of India’s software and services exports, had initially downplayed the impact of the prohibitory advisories, but soon found that it had an adverse impact on growth prospects. The lifting of ban has therefore been welcomed.

The president of NASSCOM, Kiran Karnik, said, “we are very thrilled with the announcement of liberalization. The restrictive advisories had been acting as a major deterrent in business. Decision-making was being postponed and customer visits restricted. With this announcement, we expect other countries will announce reversals soon.”

To be sure, the modifications in the advisory have not been categorical in as much as it does not rule out the eruption of hostilities between India and Pakistan, but notes that the hype that existed earlier had subsided.

What explains this change in the environment is that many of the non-officials in the country do not appear to have taken seriously the caution in the advisories.

This political turn around has caused diplomatic observers to speculate what the next diplomatic measures the Anglo-American entente and the West generally has in mind.