SAFMA at Shimla discord

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, June 12, 2007 : Shimla’s cool climate was meant to have promoted mutual accord between South Asia’s journalists and parliamentarians, when they met under the aegis of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) just under a fortnight ago.

Instead, Indian parliamentarians disagreed so fundamentally with clauses on Jammu & Kashmir in the draft declaration they believe were pushed by their Pakistani counterparts, that the Shimla conference almost turned into a battleground instead.

Said Trinamool MP Dinesh Trivedi, ``It seemed like a design to many of us that the Pakistani parliamentarians were pushing clauses on Jammu & Kashmir. We thought we were meeting in an atmosphere of peace and friendship. But when I heard the resolutions, I made it very clear that there could be no negotiations on Jammu & Kashmir. The people of India will not allow it.’’

It all began when SAFMA, a journalists’ NGO that is funded by the Norwegian government, invited nearly 200 people across South Asia to a three-day talk-shop in Shimla. The salubrious environs of the five-star Cecil hotel was supposed to help all these people break bread with each other.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee inaugurated the meeting. External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee was there to close it. In between, parliamentarians and journalists attended formal sessions on promoting connectivity, tourism, trade, etc. In the informal atmosphere, they exchanged notes and made new friends.

However, on the morning of June 3, when the draft declaration was being discussed, Trivedi said, he found a number of offending clauses on Jammu & Kashmir and India’s security relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh. He immediately got up to bring this to the notice of the chair.

One resolution spoke of the ``exploration of all options for a final settlement of the Jammu & Kashmir question, agreeable to the peoples of J&K, India and Pakistan…’’ Another resolution which described the ``intrusive nature of the international system and the great damage done to its people and especially Kashmir,’’ argued that it was ``imperative the region develop its own security and conflict resolution mechanism. It is recommended the dialogue between India and Pakistan must be irreversible and time-bound so that the people reap the fruits of it.’’

The language, tone and tenor of the resolutions, much in the manner of how governments talk to each other, shocked the Indian delegates, Trivedi said. But no one seemed aware of how this had happened. Pranab Muhkerjee was in the next room as the fracas unfolded, Trivedi said, so he must have known what was going on.
Of course, all the offending references were subsequently deleted. ``The Pakistani MPs were quite unhappy, said they had come all the way to Shimla, but achieved nothing,’’ Trivedi said.

However, there was at least one Pakistan MP who asked questions, even to SAFMA journalists. Minoo Bhandara, also the owner of Murree Brewery, the only brewery in all Pakistan, wanted to know who was paying for the free lunch.

``If you had noticed what I have been saying,’’ said Imtiaz Alam , secretary-general of SAFMA, based in Lahore, ``we always thank the Norwegian government for its help.’’

ENDS