Row over Ansari trip as Commonwealth body says not head of state

The stand-off had threatened to also derail the India-Japan strategic dialogue slated for October 28. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna was to fly directly from Perth to Tokyo for the dialogue on Thursday after attending the pre-summit Commonwealth ministerial meetings there. But,as a back-up,Krishna had already been told that in Ansari’s absence,he would have to lead the Indian delegation at CHOGM and attend the remaining part of the meet till Sunday.

Matters came to a head last week when the Commonwealth Secretariat passed on the official programme for Perth,which did not include Ansari among the leaders to be part of the group photograph at the inaugural function. In fact,the Vice-President was mentioned in the non-heads of government category,bunched alongside foreign ministers attending the meet.

India felt this would be seen as a snub because leaders of almost all the other South Asian countries would be in the photograph. But India was told that only those countries sending their heads of government could be provided a lead role in the inaugural ceremony while the remaining would be treated as leaders of delegation according to Commonwealth protocol. It was conveyed that the Vice-President could at best be ranked first in protocol in the non-heads of government category.

New Delhi protested,pointing out that Ansari was granted accreditation by the Secretariat about a month ago as head of government and to deny protocol privileges at the last moment was unacceptable. Also,sources added,there was no point in flying a special aircraft with a big entourage if India was not going to be on the high table in events such as the inaugural function and the Queen’s banquet.

What was more embarrassing for India is that the Commonwealth Secretary General is Kamalesh Sharma,a former Indian diplomat,who would be cleared for another five-year term at Perth. In fact,it was Sharma who acted in close coordination with Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai to somehow convince other delegations.

This was prompted by discussions at the highest levels after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned from Pretoria. He is said to have concurred with the view that the Vice-President ought to be accorded the head of government status as he was higher in protocol to the PM in India’s order of precedence.

The Commonwealth Secretariat’s last counter was that Zambia and Uganda too were sending their vice-presidents and they were not being accorded heads of government status so it would be difficult to justify an exception for India. New Delhi’s response was that both these countries have a presidential system of government where the president is both the head of state and the head of government while in India’s case the vice-president is ranked below the head of state but above the head of government.

It may be noted that Ansari had agreed to undertake the visit at the behest of the Prime Minister who was to initially attend the meet. Given the string of visits lined up on his calendar,the PM had requested the Vice-President to represent the country at Perth.