Is India too a concern for US Af-Pak envoy?

WASHINGTON: A top US general said on Friday that the Obama administration’s Af-Pak Special Representative Richard Holbrooke’s portfolio ''very much'' included India, but the man concerned himself said no it wasn’t. The confusion arose when Gen.David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command, told a Congressional hearing that the US has been trying to impress upon Pakistan that India is not their real threat and in this context, ''There are people who have rightly said that Ambassador Holbrooke's title should be Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.''''...let me just tell you, his (Holbrooke's) portfolio very much includes India and in fact, the Central Asian states and the other neighbours there,'' Petraeus told a Congressional committee at another point, suggesting that the Af-Pak imbroglio broadly concerned the whole region and Holbrooke’s engagements would include talks with other players with interest in the region.
The subject of Holbrooke’s portfolio is considered sensitive because Pakistan has linked its policy to its dispute with India on Kashmir and also India’s presence in Afghanistan. Islamabad wants the Holbrooke portfolio to include India (and the Kashmir issue), but New Delhi has rejected the linkage because of its insistence on resolving the issue bilaterally.
Pakistan has also accused the ''Indian lobby'' of using its ''clout'' to have India excluded from Holbrooke’s portfolio and have it restricted to what has become known as ''Af-Pak.'' In fact, Pakistan resents the term Af-Pak and having itself hyphenated with Afghanistan.
But in a separate interview to a Pakistani television channel, Holbrooke himself declined to answer a question on the Kashmir issue and said his mandate was restricted to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a broader context, he told GEO TV that ''If we are interested in helping Pakistan, we will have to talk to its neighbours, which include China, India and Afghanistan,'' suggesting that Petraeus remarks was meant in the broader context.
Holbrooke has been consulting frequently with New Delhi about the Af-Pak situation, primarily with the intent of ensuring that there is no flare-up between India and Pakistan. These exchanges have been low key in keeping with Indian sensitivities.
In fact, in the Geo TV interview, Holbrooke also disabused the Pakistanis of their recent refrain that India was supporting the growing separatist insurgency in the country’s Balochistan province, saying there was no evidence to support the charge.
''If the Indians were supporting those miscreants in Pakistan that would be extraordinarily bad, really dangerous, but they are not doing so. There is no evidence that Indians are support miscreants in western parts of Pakistan or in Balochistan,'' he said.
Addressing Pakistani fears about the Indian role in Afghanistan, Holbrooke said India had given about $1 billion assistance to Afghanistan, but it should not be a cause of concern for Pakistan.
''Pakistan does not need to worry about India in Afghanistan, but it has to be worried about miscreants and militants in its western parts,'' he said, according to reports in the Pakistani media.