Ansari at Chogm despite hitches
Vice-President’s visit comes after Oz drops objections
Vice-President M Hamid Ansari is set to represent India at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet at western Australian city of Perth later this week, even as his visit came under shadow over Islamabad’s subtle move towards winning international recognition for the so-called Government in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
New Delhi scuttled Islamabad’s bid, but then had to engage with Commonwealth secretariat to protest against the latter’s reluctance to accord Ansari the same status as that of a Head of State during the conclave.
The leaders of the 54 member States of the Commonwealth will focus on democracy and development at Chogm-2011. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requested the Vice-President to attend the summit, as his own schedule is packed with several foreign tours in the coming weeks.
Singh’s decision not to attend the conclave upset its host and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard recently said that she was “disappointed”as her Indian counterpart would not be able to make it to Perth. Gillard, however, also added that she understood the decision of Singh, who wanted to limit his stay out of the country. Speculation was also rife in media in Down Under that Singh would not be attending the conclave as a mark of protest against Gillard Government’s stand not to sell uranium to India, as New Delhi had not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. However, Australia’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary Dennis Richardson denied the media reports.
But India then had to threaten a pullout from the Chogm 2011, as it found that Pakistan’s delegation to be headed by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had also included Sardar Muhammed Yaqoob Khan, who heads the so-called Government of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir or the PoK. New Delhi perceived it as a subtle move by Islamabad to win international recognition for the Government in PoK and thus raise the issue of Kashmir in the Chogm. Australia tried to resolve the row and asked India to drop its objection, if Khan travels to Perth on a private visit, not as a member of the official delegation of Pakistan. New Delhi, however, was not ready to accept that too and Canberra is understood to have prodded Islamabad to get Khan opt out on his own.
