Germans See No Reason To Fear A Bjp Govt

The German government has said it sees no reason for Indias neighbours to fear that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees ruling combine would pursue hard-line domestic and foreign policies.

Minister of state in the Foreign Office Helmut Schaefer told opposition lawmakers that Bonn thinks the verdict of Indias general election is for parties to practise the politics of compromise as has already been proved in the formation of the Vajpayee government and its national agenda.

The structure of the (Vajpayee) cabinet and contents of the government agenda reflect a moderate course of the new government. Prime Minister Vajpayee himself is the guarantor for future pragmatism, having already endeavoured to achieve detente with Indias neighbours during his term as foreign minister from 1977 to 1979, Schaefer told MPs who had expressed fears of a renewed conflict in the subcontinent following the installation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in New Delhi. Radical demands of the BJP partys agenda like removing the special status for Kashmir were not included in the government agenda. The accent is on reconciliation and respect for all religions, he said in reply to questions from members of parliamentary party of the Alliance 90/Greens in the Bundestag.

Schaefer, who belongs to the ruling liberal coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party, added that the German government emphatically supports an Indo-Pakistani detente which, together with strengthened regional cooperation within the Saarc (South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation) framework, is a crucial element for security and prosperity in the region.

Bonn thinks that New Delhi and Islamabad must first strive for removing tensions in their relationship before trying to resolve the Kashmir dispute, he asserted.

Schaefer conceded that although the Vajpayee government was loudly voicing Indias nuclear claims, unlike its predecessors, there were no indications so far to confirm that it would indeed exercise the nuclear option. Indias partners would certainly be confronted with a more pronounced self-conscious policy of the country ... they would have to rely on diverting the increased national consciousness to constructive ends, he said.

The minister also pointed out while the Vajpayee governments agenda showed that the countrys economic policy would assume protectionist traits, the German government would rely on the solid fundamentals of Indo-German partnership to build its future relations with India.

He disclosed that the foreign ministries of both the countries were working on a so-called Agenda 2000 for Indo-German Relations which constituted an extensive concept encompassing all accents and focal points of bilateral cooperation. This step was taken upon the recommendation made at the last meeting of the Indo-German Consultative Group in November 1997.

Social Democrat Edit Niehuis, the chairperson of the German Parliamentarians Group on India, stated in response to a parliamentary question that Indias face in the context of its domestic and foreign policy has, undoubtedly, changed. Niehuis added that political relationship between India and Germany is friendly, even though it seems to be marred from the German, European and American viewpoints because India had signed neither the Non-Proliferation Treaty nor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Since Pakistan also behaves in the same manner, it is not a reassuring situation in the context of security... Indeed, the danger of a bilateral arms race (in the subcontinent) is imminent, she said.

But she punctuated her remarks with relief that the government agenda presented to the public is fortunately restrained (on nuclear weapons).