Exit via Gujarat

When Prime Minister Vajpayee lands in Zurich at the end of this week after Turkey and en route to the UN meetings in New York, the reception...

When Prime Minister Vajpayee lands in Zurich at the end of this week after Turkey and en route to the UN meetings in New York, the reception committee will not include India8217;s honorary consul for 13 years in the city, Thomas Wach. Seems that Wach8217;s services were unceremoniously terminated in July, ostensibly for an article he wrote for the spring issue of the Swiss India Chamber of Commerce bulletin criticising the Gujarat riots and the damage it had done to India8217;s reputation abroad. Strangely, Wach received no warning or even an advance noticeof his sacking, only a copy of a note India8217;s ambassador to Switzerland P L Goyal had sent to the Foreign Office in Bern, notifying them of the termination of Wach8217;s appointment. Disturbed that the unceremonious end to his Indian relationship8212;Wach has a Gujarati wife8212;could stain his reputation, Wach wrote to Goyal, wanting to know why he was being asked to go. Goyal8217;s polite reply gave no reasons. Much later friends informally confirmed to Wach that New Delhi had been furious over his offending reference to Gujarat in the Swiss magazine. That was what had done him in.

Waiting fame

Vallabhai Kathiria, HRD Minister of State, got his 15 seconds of fame as the official minister-in-waiting upon Israeli PM Ariel Sharon. That8217;s because both junior ministers in the MEA Digvijay Singh and Vinod Khanna were out of town. Khanna was travelling to Mongolia, while Singh quickly left for Seychelles, accompanying Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Having led protests against 8220;killer8217;8217; Sharon during his youth at JNU, Singh told a friend,he could hardly wait upon the same man, morning and night.

Within hours of his return, Singh was off again to Croatia, Senegal and the Czech republic. In Dakar this week an unusual Afric-Ind movement called 8216;Team-98217; will be formally launched, with India and nine African countries like Mali, Angola, Congo, Chad, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea involved in a societal transformation in agriculture, industry, information and knowledge. The old days when small doses of aid and technical cooperation that fell through the cracks are finally over. The new buzz is egalitarian partnerships, such as in oil with Chad, Sudan and Angola. Still, the fact that Senegal8217;s doing the honours shows that it8217;s really come a long way from the time Omar Abdullah travelled there in 2001 and received short shrift. No one came to receive him at the airport, the President kept him waiting for more than 30 minutes and a junior protocol officer hosted him at dinner.

November rain

PM Vajpayee could be discussing Iraq with President Bush in the US next week, but he also seems to have both Tajikistan and Syria on his mind. Apart from Moscow that is, which he visits in November, followed by Dushanbe and Damascus. MEA officials with a yen for both high diplomacy and adventure as well as the spirit of the redoubtable George Curzon, whose travels across Central Asia in 1885 are a latter-day bible for those who love life off the beaten track, have put together a great trip. It begins with Moscow, a city on a permanent high. Dushanbe, built as a garden resort by the Soviets, has had its fair share of civil war between Islamists and the secular iron hand of President Emomali Rakhmonov. Until 9/11, Dushanbe and the Tajik border town of Farkhor were crucial staging-posts in India8217;s secret war against the Taliban and alongside the Northern Alliance. Then there8217;s Damascus, a melting-pot of civilisations and religions8230; as well as bitterly opposed to the policies of the US.

Friendly fire

India8217;s growing partnership with Afghanistan seems to have really unnerved Pakistan8212;considering the amount of time it spends complaining to the US about New Delhi8217;s 8216;8216;invasion8217;8217; of its strategic space. One of Islamabad8217;s biggest grouses is that India continues to supply material not only to help rebuild schools and hospitals, but also sends military aid. So when India recently requested land border access for 300 automobiles, trucks and jeeps to send the Afghan army, Pakistan said no. Significantly, the Americans seem to be quite understanding about Islamabad8217;s position, pointing out that Pakistan is a 8216;8216;sovereign country8217;8217; and that it can hardly persuade them to allow goods that seem to threaten its interests.

Still, here8217;s a happy ending to the story. Undaunted by all the odds, the Indians simply sent the entire consignment of vehicles by ship to Iran and onwards by road into Kabul. New Delhi8217;s relations with Teheran8212; the third prong of the US 8216;axis of evil8217; 8212; just got stronger.