December 13, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 8, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Dec 12: India and Pakistan gave different accounts on Thursday for their tense relations that refuse to improve, with Islamabad’s envoy in New Delhi citing India’s domestic compulsions for the standoff, and India citing cross-border terrorism as the real culprit.

India’s junior foreign minister, Digvijay Singh, told parliament that further de-escalation between the two countries would depend on progress on India’s main theme.

“As cross-border infiltration and terrorist violence has not ended, the rest of the diplomatic and other measures taken against Pakistan are still in place,” Singh, who was minister in waiting to President Pervez Musharraf during his Agra visit, told the Rajya Sabha.

“India’s further response would be based on implementation of Pakistan’s commitment to end cross-border infiltration and terrorism,” he declared.

Pakistan’s acting high commissioner, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told the Times of India in an interview that while bilateral tensions had indeed spilled into the regionally-focused multilateral platform of Saarc nations, this had much to do with India’s domestic politics.

Indeed, Pakistan and General Musharraf were cited as key enemies, in the Gujarat polls, by the ruling rightwing Hindu establishment in the state where highly polarized elections ended on Thursday.

“I am not sure whether it’s just the state of bilateral relations,” Jilani told the Times, explaining poor relations with New Delhi. “It is also domestic politics that dictates Indian foreign policy,” he claimed.

Jilani said Pakistan had wanted the Saarc summit to take place in April but the dates were not convenient to India, which proposed the January 5-20 slot.