The Hindu Business Line : <I>Art of public posturing </I>

At the Rio, on Monday, the meeting of the G-20 group of developing countries — which have formed an effective bloc in the ongoing WTO negotiations on the Doha Round — ended (not surprisingly) on a lacklustre note with no progress being made that could be described as useful for the talks as a whole. As reported, the meeting focussed on the theme that agriculture continued to remain at the heart of the round, the point being reiterated by none other than the Union Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, that the "development content" of the Doha Round was sacrosanct and "must not be diluted".

Not out of sync

This is all very good and, of course, hardly surprising in view of the fact that the same point has been made umpteen number of times over the past few years by a succession of Union Commerce Ministers, beginning with the late Murasoli Maran. What was also not out of sync with tradition was the joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, which said in part: "At such a critical juncture (as this), we reaffirm our willingness to join efforts with a view to ensuring that WTO negotiations in agriculture live up to the commitments of the Doha mandate".

The point is that this is also what the developed countries subscribe to — at least in public. This can only mean that, since there are deep differences on the subject as far as the substantive points at issue are concerned, either the two broad camps are not being sincere in their public protestations or that when they sit down at the negotiating table they are not being able to put their respective points across effectively.

Paying lip-service

Clearly, since ace negotiators are working for both sides, one can conclude that the problem does not lie at the negotiating table but in the principled positions adopted by both camps on the subject of, in this case, agriculture. In other words, in their public posturing, both developed and developing economies are paying lip service to their resolve to get the Doha Declaration implemented, all the while being clear in their minds that their respective targets are not one and the same.

This phenomenon of misleading public posturing has been an instrument of negotiators from time immemorial, a recent example closer to home being the utterances of the Pakistani strongman and the perpetrator of Kargil, Gen Pervez Musharraf, on the subject of resumption of the peace dialogue with his neighbour, which in recent days has given abundant proof of its infinite patience when dealing with a dictator who perforce has nothing but the agenda to keep himself in the seat of power in mind.

Thus, in reply to the Prime Minister's line of thinking that the door to negotiations with Islamabad should never be closed (which is an eminently sensible standpoint to adopt as a matter of long-term strategy when dealing with a dictator like the Pakistani General), the latter has responded by saying that his effort would be to make the Havana discussions "substantive so that these are result-oriented".

Fine art, but dangerous

This is a laudable position to adopt, the remarkable thing however being that the stand is also that of New Delhi's! And yet, as everyone knows, there will be no end to the problems with Pakistan as long as there are hawkish elements in the Pakistani military who need the Kashmir issue to retain their `status' in Pakistani society, among other things. In short, public posturing is a fine art which can also be dangerous, especially when it attains its objective of deluding and confusing the public mind.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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