Hunt for the South Asia Subedar

Hunt for the South Asia Subedar

Washington, Jan 12: When Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell walked into the State Department’s capacious headquarters in Foggy Bottom last week for a briefing on South Asia, he came alone. No aides, no assistants, no associates. Alone.

There was not a hint of who he had in mind for the crucial post of Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, a pivotal position whose pointperson will largely implement US policy towards the region.

Powell sat through a 135-minute briefing on South Asia, asking detailed questions about the region, including the dynamics of the current Indo-Pakistan relations and Afghanistan. He made plenty of notes and immediately dispelled any notions that he was unfamiliar with the region or that South Asia would slide down the US foreign policy priority list.

As a key aide to former Defence Secretary Casper Weinberger and later the National Security Advisor in the Reagan Administration during the visit here of Rajiv Gandhi in 1987, Powell it appears that Powell is still very much on the ball.If he was not entirely up-to-date, then last Thursday’s session must have given him a heads up. Seated across Powell for the briefing were the key South Asia principals of the outgoing administration, including Assistant Secretary Karl Inderfurth, his deputies Al Eastham and Michelle Manor, National Security Council’s Senior Director Bruce Riedel, terrorism expert Ed Hall, non-proliferation hand Robert Einhorn, and assortment of administration types from Defence, Commerce, USTR and Energy. Also on hand was the U.S envoy to Islamabad William Milam.

But a week after that session, South Asia policy mavens are still clueless about who the Bush dispensation has in mind for the Assistant Secretary’s post. Powell himself would be most familiar with Shirin Tahir-Kheli, who worked as his aide at the NSC. But the consensus among South Asia experts is that she will be too controversial a choice because of her ethnic origins (Pakistani-Americans).

A less controversial choice being bandied around is James Clad, a New Zealander-turned-US citizen, who teaches at Washington’s Georgetown University. Clad was the New Delhi correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review in the 1980s and is said to be familiar with the region and the current Indian leadership. Also being mentioned for the post is Sandra Charles, a former NSC staffer who had dealt with South Asia in the 1980s.

While at least half-a-dozen names are being tossed around, much of Clinton’s South Asia team is easing out after an eight year-stretch that only saw frenetic action during the last quarter. In a lengthy retrospective over champagne and nuts on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary Rick Inderfurth said the major achievement of the Clinton Administration was that it had brought about a qualitatively new relationship with India.

‘‘We reintroduced ourselves to India’’ after President Clinton’s visit to India in Spring and the Prime Minister Vajpayee’s return visit, we can safely say we are no more estranged democracies we once were, we are engaged democracies,’’ Inderfurth said, recalling his colleague Tom Pickering’s comment at the start of the Clinton term that (unfortunately) ‘‘India was on the backside of the globe’’ as far as US foreign policy was concerned.

Among the biggest disappointments Inderfurth counted on his watch was Washington’s inability to completely resolve the conflict and the source of tension between India and Pakistan. However, the outgoing administration was encouraged by the ongoing peace process, which he described as ‘‘home growth.’’

Inderfurth said the administration had been in touch with leaders of both countries and had supported the various actions and statements from both sides that had contributed to the lessening of tension.