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INDIA
on Friday
India may
change Iraq policy
WHATISINDIA
June 12, 2004
India may send troops to Iraq, external affairs minister Natwar Singh hinted Friday. Home minister Shivraj Patil said he wanted some state governors to resign. In Pakistan, 15 soldiers and 35 militants were killed in fighting on the Afghan border.
After meeting US secretary of state Colin Powell in Washington, Natwar Singh said a recent UN resolution on Iraq had changed the situation, and India would contemplate altering its Iraq policy. Singh's visit to the US to pay homage to Ronald Reagan gave him an opportunity to meet Powell, for what turned out to be the new government's first high-level meeting with the US administration.
Singh and Powell said the change of guard would not cause a setback to relations between the two countries. The NDA government had turned down the US request for Indian troops, although that dispensation was seen as closer to the US than the Congress, which now heads the ruling coalition. The CPI(M), a prominent partner of the present ruling coalition, has said it would oppose any move to send Indian troops to Iraq.
The change of guard means that some state governors could lose their jobs. Home minister Shivraj Patil said he wouldn't go so far as to ask governors to resign, but would expect some of them to do so on their own. That means that he wants political nominees, or politicians who became governors thanks to their NDA connections, to go. Vijay Kapoor, lieutenant governor of Delhi, has resigned after the Congress took over.
Patil also said he had received complaints about the law and order situation in UP, a state governed by Samajwadi Party. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are proclaimed friends, but differences have arisen between then since the Congress managed to form a government without their help.
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The Pakistan army, backed by heavy artillery and helicopters, raided a hideout near the Afghan border. Fifteen soldiers, and about 35 suspected Al-Qaeda militants, died in the battle. A Pakistan army general said his men had given an appropriate reply to "unprovoked firing by terrorists".
Overall:
Natwar hinted at policy change: He said India may send troops to Iraq to keep peace alongside the US.
Shivraj wanted governors out: Close friends of the NDA now overseeing the states could lose their jobs.
Al Qaeda lost 35, Pakistan 15: An exchange of fire left alleged terrorists and Pakistani troops dead.
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