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A Saarc summit!

Sharif too will join Modi's oath-taking ceremony

Our Correspondent, New Delhi
Is it a Saarc summit? No, but almost.
But for the absence of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the presence of heads of states and governments from seven other Saarc countries at the swearing in of Narendra Modi here tomorrow will have many trappings of a summit of the regional economicgrouping.
With Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif having confirmed yesterday his attendance at the event, heads of states and governments of seven of the eight Saarc countries
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would be in the Indian capital on May 26 and 27.
Hasina will be in Japan at that time, and she will be represented by Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhary.
Among those who promptly responded positively to Modi's invite to attend the oath-taking are Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksha (Sri Lanka), Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan) and Abdulla Yameen of the Maldives and Prime Ministers Sushil Koirala (Nepal) and Tshering Tobgay (Bhutan).
The last time a Saarc summit was held was in Male in November 2011, but the next which was to have been hosted by Nepal last year had to be put off due to political unrest in the Himalayan country.
Like the Saarc summit format, each of the visiting foreign leaders will have separate meetings with the prime minister of the host country and they will be hosted to a banquet by the host. The only notable absence will be speech-making, the retreat of the leaders and Saarc Declaration.
In fact, Modi's invite to Saarc leaders for his oath-taking has given the regional grouping an unprecedented media exposure in India where it is mostly underplayed, undermined and dismissed as a mere talking shop having very little in terms of concrete achievements.
Indian media, electronic and print, has for the last few days are full of pictures of Hasina and other Saarc leaders, articles and debate about the merits of Modi's invite to South Asian leaders and the importance of India's neighbourhood policy.
However, as is the case with the Indian media, coverage of Saarc summits or the forthcoming gathering of Saarc leaders at Modi's swearing-in is set to be overshadowed by the focus on the presence of Pakistan Premier Sharif and his meeting with Modi. Activities of the regional grouping have always found much smaller space than India-Pakistan engagements on the margin of Saarc summits.
That is nothing surprising considering the fact India-Pakistan relations have always cast a shadow on Saarc and its progress.