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The Rediff Special/Suhasini Haidar

The last word

There's no denying that around the world the Pakistani style of diplomacy is seen as more polished than our own. Particularly when handling foreign media corps, the Pakistanis are at their best.

Nowhere was this more evident than during the bilateral talks that ended in New Delhi today.

While the Indian side held an official, open-to-all press briefing every evening, the Pakistanis had intimate gatherings of only the media persons-who-count at the high commission, where they held strictly off-the-record "background briefings".

Whereas members of the Indian contingent always managed to give the impression of sitting through a tooth extraction, grimacing through most encounters with the press, their Pakistani counterparts were all smiles, always prefacing their comments with rich compliments about the objectivity of the Indian media and the fair press they had received.

The Indian press briefing was always at 1700 hours IST, while the Pakistani briefing was normally held at 1530 hours. That way, the Pakistanis managed to parry any criticism of their stand by the Indians even before the Indians had had the chance to make it.

Moreover, they were able to set the agenda for the Indian press conference, because the points they made during their briefing were just the points the press brought up at the Indian briefing.

Talk about media management!

But there was one weakness in the Pakistani media plan, which they found out by Tuesday: the Indian side, by virtue of briefing the media later, also got the last word on any subject before the scribes rushed off to catch their deadlines. Which could be why they postponed their briefing to 1800 hours on Tuesday, just after the Indian media conference! Of course, they did have the excuse that they had an appointment with the Indian commerce minister in the afternoon.

For now, therefore, score equal points for both sides, as it still is a moot point which one got the real advantage in these media games.

* * *

The Delhi-Lahore bus service, first proposed during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharief, in New York in September, is still hanging fire.

According to the plan, an Indian bus is to ply the route thrice a week while a Pakistani bus will do the honours on three other days. Though both sides have announced the plan with great enthusiasm, little progress has been made since.

As of now, India is believed to have sent to Pakistan a file with the draft agreement which runs into reams and reams of pages, particularly on the question of security for the bus. And the Pakistani side doesn't plan to return the file for at least a month, say sources.

Some cynics say wryly that before any agreement the governments of East Punjab and West Punjab, states through which the bus will ply, will also have to hold talks!

* * *

Answering questions on the bus service the other day, Pakistani High Commissioner Jehangir Ashraf Qazi drew attention to the state of Indian buses versus those in Pakistan, saying Islamabad plans to use a swanky Daewoo model, whereas India will run only a refurbished DTC bus. And, of course, their roads are said to be in better shape than ours.

Probably stung by the quote, which was reported on the front page of a leading national daily yesterday, the Indian side had its stab at revenge at the press conference convened after talks with the visiting commerce delegation yesterday.

Asked about procedural delays in the import of sugar from Pakistan, Commerce Secretary P P Prabhu said it was due, in part, to the "antiquated" railway freight wagons in use in Pakistan.

Apparently, India uses the newer box-wagon technology as opposed to Pakistan's old four-wheeler wagons.

Some one-upmanship contest, this.

The Rediff Specials

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