Indo-Pak Talks---We¿ve
Reached The Summit But Can We See The Plain?
By Shailaja Bajpai
The papers have failed to provide the average reader
with a comprehensive background to the Agra Talks. Nobody seems to think it is
important for readers to understand the past. As the leaders journey to the
city of the Taj Mahal, we’ll recognise the milestones along the way, but in
name only.
There’s no need to state the obvious but we’ll state
it any way to strengthen the subsequent argument: the Agra talks between
Vajpayee and Musharraf have dominated the media since the Indian Prime Minister
extended his invitation to the Pakistan President at the end of May. No event
in recent memory comes close to matching the centimetres of print and reams of
television footage devoted to the forthcoming Indo-Pak summit.
Media coverage of the talks has been of three kinds:
factual reports on the build-up to the meeting on both sides of the border;
analytical pieces by journalists, academics, military men, politicians _ even
the layman’s views _ on what the talks can or may achieve. And `colour’ pieces,
literally and metaphorically, ranging from interviews with the President’s
mother and his wife on Pervez the son and Musharraf the husband, to the
condition of his ancestral haveli in Old Delhi.
Media coverage has overtaken the Summit even before
the Agra Talks move
into first gear. In particular, political punditry, has raced far ahead: its
focus has been on the agenda for the talks. Scrutinise media coverage of the
Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting and you will find that prescriptions for the summit
have been offered so generously, from so many quarters on both sides of the
border, that Indo-Pak relations, should be cured as easily as the common cold.
While reading and listening to the analysis and
expert commentary, it really does seem rather simple. Makes you wonder why we
haven’t solved our differences long since. That, partly, is the problem with
the coverage. It has reduced a very complex relationship between the two
countries, to ABCD… For, as you read, you realise most of the coverage is
devoid of any in depth background material.
In the wealth of material, history comes out looking
like a pauper.
A careful reading of 7 days newspaper coverage in
Times of India and The Hindu on the summit, reveals that the past is being left
behind by the future (2 July –9 July). Terms and signposts are bandied about by
reporters and analysts in the mistaken belief that that average reader
understands the terms and has seen the signposts. That, or the experts are
really addressing (a) themselves and their peers, and (b) the political
establishment in India and Pakistan. The average reader, then, takes the back
seat.
The average reader will be hard put to understand many of the issues at stake in the Agra Talks because the perspective of the past is missing. Let’s begin with the smaller matters: how many readers or viewers can explain where the Line of Control is in Kashmir and the exact nature of the problem there? C Raja Mohan in The Hindu (2 July) talks at length on the Line of Control and draws parallels with the Line of Actual Control on the China side and the 1974 border agreement with Bangladesh. But what was the agreement and what is the Line of Actual Control with China? He doesn’t enlighten us.