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Who called? Atal or Pervez?

Ramananda Sengupta in Delhi

Contradictory statements have led to confusion over who initiated the telephone conversation between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan's Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf on Friday.

The conversation, which apparently took place on Friday night at 7 pm, ostensibly focused on the Gujarat earthquake. But while Indian officials insist that it was Gen Musharraf who had called, Pakistani newspapers quoting official sources said it was Vajpayee who had called Musharraf to thank him for the aid sent by Pakistan for the quake victims.

"Indian Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee telephoned Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday to thank Pakistan for helping India in the hour of need and said that Islamabad's goodwill gesture would help in improving relations between the two countries,' said the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

However, a statement issued by the Indian ministry of external affairs said: 'General Pervez Musharraf, Chief Executive of Pakistan,called Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee today to convey his sympathy at the great loss of life caused by the earthquake in Gujarat.'

There is also a three-minute discrepancy over the duration of the call: while the Dawn claims it lasted eight minutes, the Indian side puts it at five.

As a saving grace, however, both sides agree that the conversation between the two leaders focused on the Gujarat earthquake, with Musharraf expressing his sympathy and Vajpayee thanking him for the Pakistani assistance, which basically comprised 'three planeloads of tents, blankets and medicines.'

Earlier on Friday, at a meeting of Urdu academics which he inaugurated, the prime minister had said that he would '....probably speak to Gen Musharraf today. It may happen that a moment of such sorrow and pain lead us to a new path ahead.'

Both sides reiterate that the conversation -- the first-ever between the two leaders since Musharraf took over the reins in Islamabad in October 1999 -- was an 'important first step,' and a 'goodwill gesture.'

'This is a step forward towards normalisation of relations between the two countries and it was a good gesture on part of both the leaders,' Dawn quoted an official Pakistani spokesman as saying.

Indian officials, however, played down its significance and insisted that "this definitely does not indicate a shift in the government's position" that Islamabad must rein in the militant groups in Kashmir that are funded and outfitted by Pakistan, overtly and covertly.

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