Soon after the G-8 summit at Cologne and acting on the basis of the letter sent by Vajpayee to him prior to this meeting, President Clinton dispatched the US Chief of Central Command, General Zinni, to Islamabad for talks with the Pakistani leadership. It portrayed this step in a positive way to indicate that the US government is intervening to pressurise Pakistan to withdraw its troops from the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC).

But the Pakistan government refused to countenance any such proposal. The Pakistan foreign office spokesman evaded any suggestion that Pakistan withdraw its forces, as "not fair and balanced." The outcome of General Zinni's visit is that Pakistan began talking about withdrawal of its forces from the positions the intruders are occupying in return for an immediate beginning of bilateral talks between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue in a given time-frame. Such a step can be depicted by Pakistan as its success in internationalising the Kashmir issue, and the failure of talks on Kashmir would be followed up by the issue being taken up at the UN Security Council forum.

General Zinni's visit was followed by the US assistant deputy secretary of state, Lanpher's visit to New Delhi; Lanpher was part of the American delegation to Islamabad. After meeting with Indian officials including the principal secretary to the prime minister, Lanpher denied having brought any specific proposals for discussions with India. However, this is not the whole truth.

The United States is trying to broker a settlement between India and Pakistan. This is a reality, which is happening because of the stance adopted by the Vajpayee government -- a stance that is favourable to US intervention.

The Vajpayee government is everyday appealing to the United States to directly intervene by putting pressure on Pakistan to withdraw its troops. India has also been urging on the US to prevent the IMF and other multilateral agencies from giving assistance to Pakistan. The United States has been asking India to restrain itself and not escalate military activities, which will widen the conflict.

The Vajpayee government has now decided to continue military operations while banking upon the United States to come up with some solution by utilising its influence on Pakistan.

The mystery surrounding the visit of Niaz Naik, former Pakistan foreign secretary, as a special emissary during the visit of US official, Lanpher, has not been fully explained by the government. After evading queries about Naik's visit, finally the government has admitted that he visited New Delhi on June 27 and met the prime minister and his principal secretary. The government has denied that any specific proposals were discussed with Naik and reiterated that it had conveyed to him that there can be no talks till Pakistan vacates the intrusion.

However, Naik's visit must be seen in the context of the Zinni visit to Islamabad and the US role as a third party in facilitating a solution.

The Vajpayee government has already committed a serious mistake in accepting the assessment of the United States that Pakistan prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and the civilian government is not in full control and the action taken by the Pakistan military has been decided autonomously. The present approach seems to be to carry on with this understanding and provide Nawaz Sharif scope for coming to a settlement with the aid of the Americans. As pointed out in the article on Kargil affair in these columns last week, it will be a grave misunderstanding to see Nawaz Sharif as separate from the Pakistani military establishment. The latest experience of the Kargil aggression underlines the fact that the Pakistani regime is dominated and dictated to by the military and fundamentalist forces. To expect a peaceful withdrawal of forces from Indian territory in return of American guarantee of bilateral talks is too nebulous a ground for allowing American intervention on the Kashmir issue.

Though the Vajpayee government is projecting its policy as a great success in mobilising international opinion, it is fraught with serious implications. First of all, the BJP led government is covering up the fact that the United States still considers the whole of Kashmir as "disputed territory." The United States has always preferred only such a solution to the Kashmir question as would envisage Kashmir as an independent state. This would serve the strategic interests of the United States as Kashmir is situated in a strategic area bordering China and Central Asia.