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UK Groups Lobby Against Summit

A group of Indian organisations have come together in Britain and the US to launch a campaign against any talks with "self-anointed" President of Pakistan Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The groups have prepared a 27-page petition that was handed over to Indian missions in several cities around the world on Monday. The petition puts the Indian government in conflict with groups that have been staunchly loyal to India for many years.

The groups include the Indo-European Kashmir Forum, Friends of India Society International, Bharat Awareness Forum and the India Think Tank. Several of these, particularly the Friends of India group, are offshoots of the BJP.

The decision by the Vajpayee government to hold talks with 'President' Musharraf is threatening to split the BJP from its strongest supporters outside India. "We are very concerned by the decision of the Indian government to hold talks with Gen Musharraf, the self-styled chief executive and self-anointed president of Pakistan, not only because he has refused to rein in the Pakistani jehadis but also because former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has declared that no decision taken by the military government will be binding upon any future democratically elected government," the new alliance said in a statement.

The BJP's allies abroad also expressed "grave reservations about the unrepresentative nature of the participants involved in the internal dialogue process undertaken by K.C.Pant, chief interlocutor of the Government of India."

Bipin Patel who is leading the campaign in London told rediff.com that these groups are "surprised and disappointed" that the Indian government is giving recognition to a government in Pakistan that even Pakistani leaders do not accept.

These groups that have always taken the lead in hosting events for visiting BJP leader from India have looked for a strong stand by the BJP against militancy from Pakistan. They have been in the forefront of campaigns in Britain to push the BJP position.

Now they say that they are "concerned that the Indian government has come forward to talk to Pakistan and to the militants in our country, thereby sending the unwitting signal that it pays to take up arms against the State and civil society and that it pays to be a state sponsor of terrorism."

The groups who presented the petition on Monday are reported to have strong backing even from the Overseas Friends of the BJP, the BJP group based in Britain. The campaign against the BJP government by its supporters is being led by groups in London, Washington DC and Atlanta.

The petition will be backed by further protests if the government goes forward with the talks with Musharraf, Bipin Patel told rediff.com. The groups are preparing a further course of action, he said.

The Bharat Awareness Forum is a group based in Atlanta, the India Think Tank is based in Washington, and the Friends of India and Indo-European Kashmir Forum are based in Britain.

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