Confused signals

The National Security Advisory Board, an organisation that self-describedly advises the National Security Council from outside, will now wit...

The National Security Advisory Board, an organisation that self-describedly advises the National Security Council from outside, will now wither away, having served the full length of its two-year term. The latest NSAB was once again full of high-profile strategic, economic and defence analysts, among them former chief of staff Gen V P Malik, Admiral K K Nayyar, Leena Srivastava of TERI, Charan Wadhwa of the Centre for Policy Research and led by its able convener C V Ranganathan, a former ambassador to China.

Incredibly though, even as this NSAB team presided over some of the most interesting years in India8217;s foreign policy, they also failed to read the mood in the Prime Minister8217;s Office on rewriting New Delhi8217;s relations with Islamabad. After PM Vajpayee offered a new peace initiative in Srinagar last April, the writing on the wall made it clear that he wanted to transform the bitterness of the bilateral relationship into an interdependent phenomenon. Strangely though, on the eve of Vajpayee8217;s trip to Islamabad in early January, the NSAB is believed to have recommended that the Prime Minister not meet General Musharraf. The mind boggles at the advice.

All about turban trouble

When French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin arrives in the Capital in the middle of February, he will of course deal with a host of very important issues. But on top of the agenda is also the Indian displeasure with Paris8217;s continuing 8216;8216;secular8217;8217; determination to also ban the French Sikh community from wearing the turban, at least in government-funded schools and offices. Minorities Commission chairman Tarlochan Singh, a Sikh himself, is also planning to raise the matter with de Villepin.

Clearly, the French government never once thought of its 5000-odd Sikh community when imposing a blanket ban on the headscarf worn by mostly Muslim Algerians, a community which comprises 22 per cent of the French population and with whom the French have had a love-hate relationship at least since the Algerian war for independence in the early 1960s. In fact, Paris wanted to introduce the headscarf ban which included turbans almost a year ago on its driving licence photos, but was persuaded not to do so. But with the French Sikhs now in astonishing revolt over this attack on their religious and cultural beliefs, the MEA in Delhi as well as India8217;s ambassador in Paris Savitri Kunadi has been raising the matter with the French foreign office.

Sidetracking Track II

With the MEA8217;s creative inclinations in full play, inconsistencies in Track II dialogue can only be a matter of course. For example, the Track II dialogue between India and Pakistan organised by the Indian chapter of Pugwash in mid-February, says New Delhi, cannot have any 8216;8216;third-party refereeing8217;8217; between Indian and Pakistani participants. Over a year ago when a Pugwash workshop was held in Geneva, Indian officials were banned from attending although the Pakistanis came because the MEA did not want to lend an 8216;8216;official8217;8217; tinge to the purely Track II process.

Happily, the MEA has no such problems when conducting Track II meetings with the US. A strategic dialogue, hosted by the CII, and attended by the creme de la creme of the Indo-US strategic community Sandy Berger, Brent Scowcroft, Strobe Talbott, Naresh Chandra, Ratan Tata, etc that takes place in the Capital today, has the joint secretary in charge of the Americas desk Sujata Mehta as well as India8217;s new deputy chief of mission in Washington Rakesh Sood in attendance. Clearly, it made perfect sense to have both these key people on board.

Musical chairs in the MEA

The power of proximity is often such a heady feeling that few can rescue themselves from its sphere of influence. And so, when Renu Pall, the officer attached to former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal was posted to the Indian mission in Washington in the last days of the Sibal era, there was much consternation within the Ministry of External Affairs.

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Now it looks like Pall8217;s appointment itself is in jeopardy. The big rumour circulating in South Block

is that she has been dropped in favour of another man close to the power centre. Venu Rajamony, director in External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha8217;s office, is now being tipped to go to Washington in Pall8217;s place.