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The Rediff Special/ Suhasini Haider

Hydrophobia!

If Indo-Pak talks in the past have mystified you, the current round in Delhi, which began on November 5 and continues till November 13, is sure to have you stumped. The shadow boxing being done by both sides is now out in the open. And judging by the way the talks have gone so far, the two neighbours may have reached Point Nonplus.

Take Thursday's talks between officials of the water ministries from both sides. The agenda was simple: they had to close a 1992 agreement to create a barrage to help use the Jhelum in Jammu & Kashmir for navigational purposes, the so-called Tulbul project.

India wants to create a barrage at the base of the Wular lake in Kashmir. In return, it will forgo part of its share of the Jhelum's waters.

But not only were the two sides unable to agree on their own draft agreement, with Pakistan demanding that the negotiations be started again from scratch, the talks were deadlocked on even basic definitions such as the meaning of "non-consumptive" under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.

While the Pakistanis are tight-lipped about their objections, sources say Islamabad fears that if India is allowed to store such a large body of water, it can create an artificial flood in Pakistan at any time of its choosing.

But Indian Water Resources Secretary Z Hassan says it is ridiculous to start renegotiating an issue that had already been agreed upon in 1992. So the blame-game goes on, while much water flows down the Jhelum.

Going by figures provided by the water resources ministry, approximately 308 million acre-feet have flown down the river since 1984 (when the dispute over Tulbul began), which is roughly the equivalent of all the water deployed under the Bhakra Nangal project! What a waste...

* * *

On to Siachen. There are many parallels between the progress (read: regress) of the Tulbul talks and the Siachen talks.

At the Tulbul talks on Thursday, the Pakistanis refused to honour the 1992 agreement. On Friday, in the case of Siachen, India refused to negotiate on the basis of the discussions of 1992.

Both problems have their roots in events in 1984. That was the year India started work on the Wullar Barrage and also the year that Pakistan claims Indian troops took over positions on the Siachen glacier.

Anyway. Things between the two sides reached an acrimonious peak on Friday with Indian officials calling the talks on Siachen "disappointing". They said at a press conference that it was "absurd", "strange" and "bizarre" to be discussing anything without taking into account the "existing reality", meaning the recent reports of Pakistani aggression at Siachen.

In turn, diplomatic sources on the Pakistani side called these reports "bogus" and said there had been no escalation in the violence at Siachen.

When the two sides assembled for talks at South Block, the tension in the air was almost as palpable as at an India-Pakistan cricket match! And matters weren't helped by the fact that each side had 12 delegates! Things really came to a boil when the Pakistani delegation rejected an Indian offer for a ceasefire to "freeze" the situation in Siachen.

So right now the only ones freezing are the Indian and Pakistani soldiers at Siachen.

* * *

So where do the Pakistani delegates go during their 'downtime'?

Even after all these years of visiting India, all of them still go to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.

But this year, there's another attraction. The dargah at Ajmer Sharif is celebrating its 786th urs (pilgrimage), and most of the Pakistanis are making time for it too. The entire defence delegation flew to both Agra and Ajmer on Thursday.

* * *

One thing that seems to have made the visiting Pakistanis happy is the price of vegetables!

Particularly those who have come with their families, such as Pakistani Power and Water Secretary Syed Shahid Hussain, seem to have noticed how much more vegetables cost in New Delhi than back home.

In fact, until this year, Indian Foreign Service officials would go to their postings in Islamabad loaded with vegetables, pulses, and rice, for they used to be more expensive in Pakistan. No longer, as this year's price frenzy in India has taken the average cost of any vegetable in Delhi to Rs 30 a kilo and of most pulses to Rs 50 a kilo. The corresponding prices in Pakistan are Rs 10 and Rs 25.

Householders in the capital must be hoping that free trade in groceries is on the agenda of the talks scheduled for November 10.

* * *

The delegates resume their negotiations this week. On the agenda:

• November 10: Economic and Commercial Co-operation
• November 11: Steps to check Terrorism and Drug Trafficking
• November 12: Promotion of Friendly Exchanges in Various Fields

The Rediff Specials

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