Although the United States and Pakistan are longtime military allies while India has maintained close ties with Moscow, officials said there was “tough talking” here over the way that Pakistan has responded to recent developments in particular, the officials said, Mr. Gates urged the Pakistani leaders to tone down their public Statements, to avoid new military deployments to avoid new military deployments that could be viewed by India as threatening and to restrain political parties in the Pakistan held part of the disputed terrority from inciting or arming Kashmiris who cross over from the Indian side seeking assistance.

A senior Pakistan official said Mr. Ishaq Khan and General Beg responded with “irritation” to some of Mr. Gate’s appeals. The reference to toning down public statements appeared aimed in part at Prime Minister Bhutto, who recalled at a public rally in March in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan held Kashmir, that her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, once vowed to fight a thousand year war for Kashmir. General Beg has been quoted as saying that the Pakistani army is ready for war and will shock India if it comes.

The Pakistani leaders were said to have told Mr. Gates that the United States should concentrate on getting India to halt its “terrorism” against the population of Kashmir, where the Muslim majority has faced a sharp crackdown by Indian forces. As for Pakistani statements the leaders were said to have remarked that they had been moderate enough. They also told Mr. Gates that Pakistani military movements in recent weeks had been less threatening than India’s.

Despite their differences, Pakistani officials said they made clear to Mr. Gates that Pakistan welcomes American efforts to head off a war, and that it supports anything that the United States can do to encourage India to enter into discussions on the issue with Pakistan.

The officials said they were particularly pleased by an American assertion that the Kashmir issue should be resolved among the lines of the Simla agreement reached between India and Pakistan in 1972 in which the two governments undertook to settle the issue “by bilateral negotiations or by any other peace means.”

Mr. Gates has come to Delhi here fresh from discussions in Moscow and Islamabad. India accustomed to playing off American and Soviet interests, confronts for the first time what appears from here to be superpower consensus.

The Americans are expected to convey Washington’s concern about what the White House described as a deteriorating situation involving mounting human rights. Abuses in Kashmir, and the consequent threat of war between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory.

But the Indian Government’s ability to deal with the Kashmir crisis appears to be falling victim to Prime Minister Singh’s worsening internal political problems,

Like the only previous Indian Government not formed by the Congress Party, the Singh administration is being undermined by disputes in the governing coalition. Twelve years ago when that earlier non-Congress Government faltered, there was nothing of the magnitude of the Kashmir rebellion confronting India.

While the Prime Minister’s allies on both the pro-Hindu right and Communist left complain that he is not being tough enough on Kashmiri Muslims, thousands of people are being arrested or hounded by Government forces, Indian human rights groups and fleeing Kashmiris say. As a result no new political initiatives are being proposed.

More damaging to Mr. Singh’s standing is the growing embarrassment to his administration caused by the activities of Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and his son, Om Prakash Chautala.

Mr. Lal, a powerful leader in the northern farm belt, has a history of violence and corruption that makes him anathema to the clean government voters who propelled Mr. Singh to power in December. Mr. Chautala has been linked to vote fraud and poll violence in Haryana state. The violence culminated last week in the killing of a rival candidate in coming state elections in a constituency where Mr. Chautala an unelected Chief Minister who inherited his position from his father is seeking a seat.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 11, 1990