Shortly after former Secretary, Heavy Industries, B N Jha, had to pay with his job for travelling to Taiwan to attend a seminar, the Foreign Office took a small leap forward last week by quietly allowing the biggest ever delegation from Taipei to visit New Delhi.The opening to Taiwan may set neither the Taiwan straits nor the Yamuna on fire, but it nevertheless constitutes a daring gambit in New Delhi’s self-imposed ‘‘one-China policy.’’A day-long seminar at the India International Centre in the capital—that too on a Sunday when the entire establishment was on holiday—was the highlight of the Taiwanese tour. And although both sides stopped short of signing an MoU on enhancing contacts, the political symbolism of the visit was far too apparent and significant to ignore.Given New Delhi’s official line, the Taiwanese delegation did not have any ministers on board. Political participation had been restricted to four MPs from the four political parties. Media publicity was banned.From the Indian side, IIC chairman N N Vohra led the panel at which Joint Secretary (China) in the MEA Nalin Surie made only a brief appearance.Still, the MEA’s decision to reinvent itself in a brave, new post-Cold War world, is shadowed with its refusal to clear the participation of a bureaucrat in a seminar in Taipei.Jha, ironically the MEA’s financial advisor until he became secretary, Heavy Industries, had been invited in August to attend a meeting of the Asia Productivity Organisation (APO) in Taiwan. Jha, a former head of the National Productivity Council confirmed that he would attend, without waiting for the MEA’s okay. It did not come. Jha flew to Taipei.Soon after his return, highly placed sources said, Jha was suddenly asked to return to his state cadre. No reasons were given in the order, but highly placed sources here said the revocation was linked to his decision to visit Taiwan, a country with which India has no diplomatic relations. Jha reacted by seeking premature retirement. His papers are due to be accepted by December.Last week’s Taiwanese delegation was received with much more grace in New Delhi. For a start, Taiwan had among the highest foreign exchange reserves in the world. It had, for example, invested as much as $45 billion in neighbouring Asean, although none of the Asean nations had diplomatic ties with Taipei. Even mainland China had received as much as $3 billion from Taiwan.Observers pointed out that New Delhi had indeed come a long way since it opened its Trade & Cultural office in Taipei in 1995 and peopled it with retired bureaucrats. The story goes that at the time, the trade representative had even been told ‘‘not to bother with faxes, much less telegrams’’ to the ministry. Just go and enjoy, was the unstated advice.By this year, the volume of bilateral trade had touched $1 billion. From 6000-odd visas issued to Taiwanese citizens in 1996, the number had almost doubled to 12,000 this year. New Delhi even bravely went ahead and signed a largely unreported Investment promotion and protection agreement in October this year. Entrepreneurs here pointed out that Taiwan had the largest computer hardware industry in the world and could successfully tie up with India’s software industry.The Taiwanese delegation last week pointed out that an improvement in economic relations would only benefit both countries. Clement Chang, delegation leader and a presidential adviser at home, told The Sunday Express: ‘‘India is a huge country, you have so many natural resources, things can only look up.’’
