Singh: Timed talk

New Delhi, March 18: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, anxious to cut the rhetoric that the Saarc regional summit has so often been a victim of, has decided that every head of state or government should limit his speech to a maximum of seven minutes at the inaugural session in New Delhi on April 3.

With Afghanistan joining Saarc for the first time, that makes it eight top leaders and 56 minutes of keynote speeches.

There are several other firsts, including the attendance of China, Japan, the US, the European Union and Korea at the summit, but only as observers. That means they can sit on the stage at Vigyan Bhavan for the opening, but their representatives must limit their speeches to four minutes each only.

A feverish preparedness seems to be gripping New Delhi these days as South Block prepares for the 14th Saarc summit. Minute-by-minute schedules for all Saarc leaders, all of whom with very high security shields, are enough to create several nightmares at the same time.

South Asian leaders — Sri Lanka’s Mahinda Rajapakse, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Bangladesh’s new caretaker chief Fakhruddin Ahmed, Pakistan’s Shaukat Aziz, Nepal’s G.P. Koirala, Maldives’ Abdul Gayoom, Bhutan’s Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk and Singh — must be among the most protected people in the world.

US assistant secretary of state for South Asia Richard Boucher and Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso have also confirmed attendance. South Korean foreign minister Song Min-soon is likely to be here, while the EU and China still have to confirm representation.

Iran’s application as an observer into Saarc will also be considered this time.

With multiple security rings necessary for every leader, it was thought most prudent to have the retreat at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, instead of flying them out to places like Agra or Shimla.

“In the good old days, Bangladesh president Gen. Ershad had the retreat on a steamer on the Buriganga river, or Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan in 1989 had all the leaders driven to the Daman-i-Koh hills near Islamabad,” a regional diplomat recalled.

In keeping with Singh’s most quotable quote so far (“I wish one day I can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul”), the theme of this summit is “connectivity”.

Indian diplomats say that after 60 years of the division of the subcontinent, it is imperative to subsume notions of territoriality into the reality of economic and cultural commonalities.

Regional diplomats, acknowledging that India wants to give “the concept of South Asia one last shot’’, point out that in the run-up to the summit conferences with editors from across the region as well as a meeting of vice-chancellors of universities to set up a South Asian university (likely to be in New Delhi) has been held.

But they also say that India, not fully aware of its size and power, is still unable to look at the big picture of inter-connectedness. Bangladesh, for example, has been crying out loud for removing a string of tariff and non-tariff barriers that India imposes on goods from Dhaka, with New Delhi insisting on going by the letter, rather than the spirit of the trade agreement.

An Indo-Sri Lanka project on rebuilding a railway line within Sri Lanka, devastated by the tsunami, is another case in point. The project itself is worth approximately $150 million, but both countries have continued to argue about the manner of funding it.

New Delhi wants Colombo to source the entire package from India, that is the railway line itself, signalling equipment as well as rolling stock (locomotives, etc). Colombo argues it cannot afford New Delhi’s loan that is being offered at market rates (libor plus half per cent) and has repeatedly told India to decide, one way or another.

India’s big fear is that if it doesn’t accede to the Sri Lankan demand, then Colombo will ask China to do the project.