Mishra omission

NATIONAL Security Advisor (NSA) and Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra was not shown the final version of the Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) press statement on New Delhi’s reaction to US President Bush’s missile defence plans. While Mishra was said to have been very much part of the government’s thinking on the subject, the press release was issued late one evening last week—perhaps, the hour was at fault—within 24 hours of Bush having made his statement in Washington, without the say-so of the NSA.

Clearly, there’s far more to the whole issue of the government’s almost joyful reaction to Bush’s space plans, than meets the eye. Mishra, for example, is said to prefer a far more circumspect approach to the whole affair than the irrational exuberance that is contagiously spreading across the MEA and a large part of the strategic community in the capital.

With the Congress now gearing up to strike hard on this issue—it began by striking the right note of caution, for a change—temperatures are all set to rise in the hot summer ahead.

Selective MEA

STUNG by the criticism in a large section of the press last week over the government’s over-enthusiastic response to Bush’s space weapons plans, the MEA decided to preach to the converted. So, the day after the press release was released, a few select journalists—those who had applauded New Delhi’s initiative in print—were invited for a briefing by the ministry spokesman and the joint secretary in charge of the subject, in this case, disarmament. The country’s largest newspaper was not invited, nor was this paper.

By explaining its views to all those who already agreed with it, the ministry wasn’t treading on new territory. But if it wanted better press by the national and regional dailies—and wanted them to explain to their readers what New Delhi’s views were all about and why they were different—it may have been a far better idea to also brief correspondents who were more critical than amenable.

As much of the Foreign office, which has served India’s interests well during the Cold War knows, information is not only power, it is also propaganda. It would be self-defeating to forget that in the new world order.

Mission Armitage

Move over Ivanov, all eyes in New Delhi are now focussed on the new US deputy secretary of State Richard Armitage, who arrives on the night of May 10 for day-long talks the next day on Bush’s missile defence plans. (The very interesting coincidence is that May 11 happens to be the third anniversary of the Pokharan-II tests.)

Now since everyone who’s anyone in the strategic community in the capital wants to meet Armitage, the spotting game on who’s going to be invited by the US embassy for ‘‘the Armitage do’’ has begun.

Last heard, the American mission has decided to junk all journalists and send out precious, select invitations only to 15 ‘‘experts’’ on the subject. Happily, some of those ‘‘experts’’ are also (news)paper tigers. The rest of us must eat our hearts out and be content with secondary sources of information.

RSS in Iran

EVEN as Iran goes to the polls exactly a month from now, the question by the editor of the RSS-controlled Organiser paper, Seshadri Chari, to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during his recent trip to Teheran comes to mind. Even as Vajpayee waxed eloquent about two old civilisations, Iran and India, Mr Seshadri wanted to know of him : How could an ‘‘Islamic’’ country be a ‘‘civilisation’’? And how could a civilisation like India, predominantly Hindu, cooperate with such a country? The PM laughed off the questions, somewhat embarrassedly.

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