NEW DELHI, JAN 13: The government is not willing to give time to foreign envoys who may want to voice their concern on attacks against Christians in India.None of the envoys, including United States Ambassador to India Richard Celeste, have so far met either Foreign Secretary K Raghunath, Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh or Home Minister L K Advani on this issue. Celeste last met Advani in October, soon after the rape of four nuns in Jhabua, and voiced his concern over the event in the course of a conversation.A spokeswoman of the US embassy confirmed that the Ambassador had meet Vishwa Hindu Parishad president V H Dalmia yesterday. She added that Celeste had been meeting ``a variety of people'' over the last few weeks, but would not say if these included members of the Government.Government sources, however, denied that Celeste or any other foreign envoy had in recent weeks raised their concern directly with senior officials. ``We are not encouraging this sort of intervention. This is an internal issue for us,'' sources said.Deprived of an ear in the Government, foreign diplomats are tapping alternative sources of dialogue, especially people widely quoted in the international press. These include officials in the National Commission for Minorities, the Archbishop of Delhi Alan de Lastic, journalist John Dayal who is also spokesperson for Christians in the Capital and Ravi Nair of the South Asia Human Rights Watch.It appears the diplomats are adopting a wait and watch policy, to check if the attacks spread to other states and how the government defends its secular credentials.But while the diplomats insist the attacks have tarnished India's image abroad, they do not want to visit Gujarat to study the situation. Despite the Pope's reference to the attacks in his address yesterday, one reason why Western diplomats seem to be avoiding a confrontational posture is because they don't want to be seen as exclusively defending Christians.Even the German ambassador Heinrich-Dietrich Dieckmann, who said he would be seeking an appointment with the foreign secretary soon, is said to be doing so on behalf of the European Union, whose presidency Germany took over on January 1. Diplomats said he would use the occasion to express concern over the attacks.There is also no EU resolution planned along the lines of the one issued against the Shariat law in Pakistan, because ``India is basically a secular country and we have to see if this is the beginning of something or stray, isolated incidents.''So far, nations abroad have merely asked their missions in New Delhi to watch the developments, report on the situation, but refrain from issuing `demarches' to New Delhi, diplomatese for critical notes.
