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| India needs a competent External Affairs Minister | | |
V Gangadhar |
No one expected earthshaking decisions from the Non-Aligned summit at Havana. The hordes of media persons which accompanied Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to the summit reported that Havana registered a lessening of the chill in the current Indo-Pak relations and that the foreign secretaries of both the nations would meet shortly to set the agenda for future talks.
Even while flying to the NAM the Indian Prime Minister made a welcome statement on the urgent need for a full time External Affairs Minister who would be appointed on his return home. Dr Singh admitted he was being snowed under work concerning the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). So nine months after the exit of the unfortunate Natwar Singh over the Volcker issue, the MEA will finally get a head.
It had been rather unusual for a major nation like India to have carried on without a foreign minister for such a long duration. Had there been similar vacancies in the ministries of Home, Defence or Finance, we are sure, action would have been taken much earlier. But then, it was presumed that the External Affairs portfolio was not so much `politically' important as the other three, did not affect the daily lives of millions of Indians directly and that the job could be handled by the Prime Minister himself with the help of a Minister of State.
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This interpretation however, was different from that inthe US, where the President, considered the Secretary of State as his most important appointment and there was unending media speculation over his choice for the job. The American Secretary of State often left his stamp of authority over the administration as much as the head of state, and even today the Eisenhower era of the 1950's was often referred to as the Dulles Era after the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, a champion of the Cold War. And this, despite the fact that President Eisenhower was the most visible war hero of his generation and won two presidential elections with consummate ease. When the history of the Bush administration was chronicled after his exit from the office, the role played by his Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice would be thoroughly analysed.
The Indian External Affairs minister never reached such dizzying heights of popularity. This was due to a couple of factors. Prime Ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru were international figures who ran the MEA themselves and were closely identified with its successes and failures. Nehru and later Indira Gandhi liked to control the MEA because they were eager to project India as a major international power, despite its economic backwardness. Nehru was one of the architects of the Non Aligned
Movement, which, despite western media criticism had survived to this day. Indira, with her convincing performance of a victorious war against Pakistan and the liberation of Bangladesh, saw to it that India emerged as a world power capable of standing up to the displeasure of the US. Both leaders believed in the concept of the United Nations where India had a major role to play with its contribution to international peace keeping operations in many of the trouble spots of the world. From the 1950's to the mid 1980's, India was a star performer at the United Nations.
India's performances in the United Nations were watched closely and stalwarts like V K Krishna Menon, despite the flak he received from the Western media and powers, kept the nation's flag flying. Even those who intensely disliked Krishna Menon admitted that the world could not ignore him and his speeches on the Kashmir issue in the UN. Sardar Swaran Singh was a different type of foreign minister. He spoke little, believed in silent diplomacy but had the confidence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The situation changed when weak Prime Ministers and their hotchpotch coalitions ruled India. The MEA fell under bad days and we had nonentities like S.N.Mishra functioning as foreign ministers. By this time India's role as a major international power had declined and its leaders were more interested in keeping their patched up coalitions going on for some more time. Only token interest was shown in running the MEA. One hopes that this trend will not continue with the UPA government despite the fact that the Prime Minister had always shown more interest on issues like economic development than India's political clout abroad.
Under the NDA rule, both Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha did not particularly distinguish themselves running the MEA. Basically, they were more interested in domestic issues. Natwar Singh was different. He was no doubt old and according to his critics, an anachronism clinging to the lost aura of Nehruism. But make no mistake, Natwar Singh had forgotten more about foreign affairs than what most his contemporaries knew about the subject! Even today, his newspaper columns offer enlightened and entertaining comments on world affairs and world leaders. It is hard to think of any Indian who knew as much about foreign relations as Natwar Singh.
Ultimately, the man chosen for the job must be able to think globally and be conversant with what was happening in the rest of the world. There are interesting possibilities in the field of international politics in the days to come. With British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, all set to quit, the Conservative Party leader, Cameron, during his recent trip to India, was already talking like a future Prime Minister. The popularity level of American President, George Bush, has hit an all time low and in all probability, the Democrats could capture power in the Senate and Congress elections this November. This could make the passage of their candidate to the White House in 2008 easier.
India had to deal with the OPEC nations with a lot of tact and also keep the peace movement with Pakistan going. There is serious trouble brewing in Sri Lanka with the breakdown of talks between the government and the LTTE. India must evolve its own method of tackling global terrorism without appearing to lean too much on the US.
The United Nations needs a new look to deal with the complicated contemporary problems. Everyone realizes the needfor an expanded Security Council with additional permanent members having Veto powers. India had a sterling record in the UN and is fully justified in pressing its claims for a permanent SC seat. This again, would be major job for the new External Affairs minister. And of course, there is an Indian, Shashi Tharoor, who is a candidate for the post of the next Secretary General of the United Nations and our new foreign minister should canvas support for him.
These are some of the tasks awaiting the new foreign minister and one hopes he would be up to these challenges. The Foreign Minister should shed his party label and affiliations and speak for the country as a whole. Since diplomacy begins at home, one of the key jobs of the new foreign minister would be to soothe the ruffled feathers in the MEA where the appointment of the new foreign secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon, a comparatively junior diplomat, has upset some of those senior to him. One of them had already put in his papers and three more could follow suit.
A dissatisfied and disgruntled foreign desk can be a problem for the new foreign minister. Though former foreign secretary, Shyam Saran has been given an extension to help out the final stages of the Indo-US nuclear treaty, the new foreign minister would also be responsible for its implementation. In such a situation, we need a foreign minister who would stride forward with the motto, `Cometh the hour, cometh the man'.
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