Missing, the FO

Oh, the impatience of men and women with a will to history! When bureaucrats with two left feet get in the way and attempt to stymie the vision thing of these leaders with their ponderous, incrementalist approach, no one dare predict the shape of the reversal to come! Enough to say, its the month of May that dares these heroes of our time to reinvent Peter Pan — and fly. It happened in 1974, with Pokharan. It happened again in 1998, again at Pokharan. And over this last month, the nation has been rudely shaken from its summer stupor to address itself to two major foreign policy initiatives — George W.’s missile defence shield and Vajpayee’s Pakistan se baat karo directive.

At least there was a semblance of bureaucratic input into the first, barely a couple of key divisions in the MEA working to frame India’s need for the defence shield. On the latter, except for the larger-than-life minister Jaswant Singh who was part of the core strategy team, even the pretence of involving the foreign office was shed. Its another matter that some officials have fought back and reintroduced the ‘‘composite dialogue’’ mantra into PM’s letter to Musharraf, and therefore, the summit agenda. All are meanwhile agreed that the ‘‘CD’’ is a great fallback position, especially when dreams quickly die on the icy slopes of Kargil.

Backchannel diplomacy

Speculation that backroom boys were at work to break the India-Pakistan deadlock refuses to go away. Telephone calls from unnamed capitals, conversations through twilight zones, all governments love the shadowy thrust and parry of back channels. In recent memory, former journalist R K Mishra was used to confabulate with then Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif at the height of Kargil, while the utterly suave and dapper former Pakistani foreign secretary Niaz Naik, returned the favour with India.

Rumours flew thick and fast over a possible deal the two nations had reached through the efforts of these good men, that would involve the visit of Nawaz Sharif to New Delhi, where he would announce that Islamabad was withdrawing from the LoC. Subsequently, one hot, June night in 1999, PTI broke the story, datelined Islamabad, that Naik had been in town again. The PMO admitted the story, but denied that a deal was in the works. Some ten days later, Nawaz met President Clinton in Washington and promised that he would withdraw from the LoC. It was the Fourth of July, America’s independence day.

Incidentally, Musharraf, the man who later sent Nawaz packing to jail and then Saudi Arabia, is promising to come to town in the ‘‘early’’ part of the same month.

Jaswant’s horses

Speaking of Saudi Arabia, the thoroughbred colt and filly, named Jarrah and Samira respectively, that were gifted to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh by the all-powerful Saudi prince Abdullah in January, have finally arrived in Delhi. They’re still babies, though, frolicking around the green fields of the President’s Body Guard (PBG) in Rashtrapati Bhawan as if they were born to them. Evidently, it’s a great compliment to be gifted a filly, since it’s the female line that decides the prized strain of the horse in question. And Singh, who loves horses, is often seen at PBG, paternally supervising the growing up of the two. Looks like the Indo-Saudi relationship is growing from strength to strength.

Bound Down Under

On his return from Moscow on June 6 (where he confers with both Russian Defence and Foreign ministers Ivanov), Jaswant Singh is off to Australia on a bilateral visit. Cricket’s clearly helped restore the justified sense of grievance Indians felt after Pokharan, when Canberra not only temporarily withdrew its high commissioner in protest, but also its defence attach‚. Incredibly, a handful of young Indian military officers sent to Canberra on routine training missions, were in the middle of their class when they were asked to get up and leave.

Since, though, things have largely returned to normal, with visits back and forth from Australia. Now, Singh has been persuaded to go. With Clinton having broken the back of India’s post-nuclear isolation and George W. receiving Singh in the Oval Office last month — both also walked out into the Rose Garden to smell the cherry blossoms in Washington’s mad spring air — Canberra may have realised that it must be part of a handful of remaining capitals to which no major Indian leader has still been.

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