Destination Moscow

IT must feel good to party alternately in Washington and Moscow, having faced the ignominy of international isolation for about two years after the nuclear tests. External Affairs-cum-Defence minister Jaswant Singh is now getting ready to catch a flight to the Russian capital in early June, this time to meet his defence counterpart Sergei Ivanov.

The latter is an old Putin friend, also from St. Petersburg, but don’t get taken in for his gamine charm: Ivanov is very much part of the old school which believes that Russia must return to its natural, superpower habitat and that the present mess is an aberration from which it must learn crucial lessons.

So, presumably over many shots of vodka, dadna style, Singh and Ivanov will share their innermost feelings not only about corruption in bilateral defence deals, but also over the provocative US proposal to build a missile shield ’midst the stars and stripes. Seems Moscow’s invitation specially includes a discussion on this subject, something New Delhi seems quite pleased about, so Singh’s usually small, travel contingent will have officials from the Disarmament desk in the ministry as well.

Deng’s daughter

DENG Xiaoping, the chain-smoking, five-foot-nothing leader of all China who was so passionate about chess, who returned the Middle Kingdom to the world, whose aphorisms about black mice and white mice are imitated to the point of flattery also had a daughter. Her name is Deng Yirong and she is currently the senior vice-president of the China Association of International Friendly Contact. And she’s coming to India.

Her trip later in the year, after the Shankaracharya of Kanchi journeys across major Chinese cities, is likely to be a visual feast: besides New Delhi and probably Mumbai, there’s Thiruvananthapuram—that pinkish bastion that’s now fallen to the Congress—on the cards. Deng is herself a stranger to Hindustan, this is her first trip here, but what a journey its likely to be! Despite the current undercurrent of tension between Asia’s giant neighbours, the Chinese better watch out. Deng’s daughter is likely to be mobbed through her travels across India.

Gender bender

IT may have been somewhat unfair to have picked on Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer during her recent trip to Washington for foreign office consultations. To have said that Ms Iyer wasn’t able to command the attention of US officials and that her visit was really all about being the proud parent at graduating daughter’s college ceremony. First the facts, which are somewhat different: Iyer met a series of senior officials, including the deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage as well as his undersecretary for political affairs Marc Grossman, her meetings had been fixed well in advance and are believed to have gone off well. Second, her weekend detour to her daughter was a private one, for which she is believed to have picked up the tab herself.

It seems a shame though that the MEA would be leaking stories about its own Foreign Secretary just because she doesn’t pretend to be part of the rat pack (for the bewildered, the reference is to the late John F. Kennedy’s buddies). For a change, let the ministry look inwards and see how many travel to the West on the slightest reason, before pointing fingers elsewhere. And lastly, why doesn’t the ministry defend its own FS publicly, especially if the truth is on its side.

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