'Talks may help individuals, but not nations'

By Our Staff Correspondent

RAIPUR, JUNE 9. The former Prime Minister, Mr. Chandrashekhar, today expressed reservations over the outcome of the talks between India and Pakistan.

Basing his observation on the reported remarks of the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K.Advani, that not much should be expected from the talks, Mr. Chandrashekhar said Mr. Advani was in a better position to judge. ``I frankly do not know why they are meeting and what are the issues that would be discussed. Both, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee and Gen. Parvez Musharraf, are trying to be friends when they are enemies,'' he said at a press conference here.

Expressing surprise over the sudden decision of the Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpayee, to invite Gen. Musharraf when he had refused to share the dias with a military dictator during SAARC meetings, Mr. Chandrashekhar said not much should be expected going by the results of the Government's talks with Hurriyat and others in Kashmir in the recent past. ``Unless there is a secret agenda, not much is likely to yield from the talks,'' he said.

He said national issues could not be solved the way Mr. Vajpayee was doing. ``The proposed talks may help individuals but not nations,'' he said.

The former Prime Minister said the situation in Nepal was bad, particularly the arrest of editors. ``I am no less concerned about the stability and integrity of Nepal than any Nepalese.''

Earlier, delivering the Mayaram Surjan memorial lecture on ``Economic Reforms: It's Effects on India'', Mr. Chandrashekhar was highly critical of the new economic policies and said the ruling and the Opposition parties agreed on the basic principles of economic reforms and any opposition is a mere formality.

Expressing unhappiness over the privatisation of PSUs, he said the economic policies helped only a few States and were meant to promote multinationals. He said it was unfortunate that we were so influenced by `` Clintons and Bushes'' that we had forgotten Gandhi and his ideology.

Mr. Chandrashekhar was in Raipur as part of his car yatra from Puri to Porbandar to create an awareness against the new economic policies.

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