Jaswant Singh, who as the country’s foreign minister is credited with having brought India closer to the United States than ever before, can today find little that is right with Washington. The man who has just been warmly commended by former US deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott, in his book, Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb, today finds that American bureaucrats are a completely non-transparent species; that the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, is quite obviously economical with the truth; and that Indo-US moves vis-a-vis the Next Step in Strategic Partnership are highly premature.Jaswant Singh ko gussa kyun aata hai? Is this sudden welter of loaded words from the ever-eloquent Singh caused by the fact that the BJP unexpectedly finds itself in the ranks of the Opposition, or is it a more personal change of heart? A bit of both, possibly. It would appear that Singh’s onerous responsibilities as chief spokesperson for his party have effected a change of posture more in line with the anti-US rhetoric of the RSS and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. Also, the liberal image that Singh had once cultivated in the power corridors of New Delhi and Washington may not serve any useful purpose within a party clearly inclined towards adopting a more hardline and insular stance. Notice how the BJP now plays the disinvestment issue. In power it was, arguably, India’s most reform-friendly government. Out of it, it embraces the comfortable shibboleths of protectionism.What the BJP does not realise is that its flip-flops do not make for party credibility or for building public confidence. Quite to the contrary, in fact. The BJP’s hasty rejection of policies that have, ironically, come to be identified with it, betrays a lack of self-confidence and makes it appear opportunistic. As for Jaswant Singh, he had this reputation for thinking out of the box, for evolving innovative foreign policy strategies. Today he appears anxious to play spoiler in a process of engagement with the US that he himself had once piloted so enthusiastically.
