Hijacked and isolated

Despite all this, there was no audible condemnation from the world community, and surely Ramdan and Christmas could not be theonly explanations. The US took four long days to say that it disapproved of the act. It is not clear whether the Indian missions abroad were even activated in any special way.

The External Affairs Minister told the all-party meet called by the Prime Minister that the only Islamic country the government was in touch with was the UAE. And there too the Indian officials were kept out of the negotiations and the ambassador was not even allowed on the tarmac in Abu Dh-abi. It is reported that the royal family in Dubai has been unhappy si-nce C.M. Ibrahim, Civil Aviation Mi-nister in Deve Go-wda8217;s governme-nt, did not allow UAE airlines certain landing rights in India. But that was three years ago.

There are many leaders in the Congress who have excellent links with the UAE whose services could also have been used, though the governm-ent did take the help of a powerful ta-ntrik now in the doghouse. P.V. Narasimha Rao had used all kinds of people, including opposition leaders, and Atal Behari Vajpayee, in hisdiplomatic offensive on Kashmir to present India8217;s case at the UN. But in this instance, the government did not even marshal all the resources at its command. Unlike Kargil, all the different arms of the government did not move in unison this time.

The number two in the Cabinet, L.K. Advani, has publicly expressed re-servations about the handling of the crisis. The Defence Minister who at th-at time was in the Northeast was not summoned back for four days. The Chief of Army St-aff, V.P. Malik, issued a veiled criticism against the re- lease of the militants on the gove-rnment-controlled TV. All the three chiefs of the armed forces were apparently unhappy about not being involved fully.

The decision that the External Affairs Minister sh-ould personally escort the militants to Kandahar was not discussed in the Cabinet. Jaswant Singh is learnt to have wa-lked into a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security along with the Prime Minister and announced that he was going to Afghanistan.

Either thegovernment did not try hard enough or it was unsuccessful in roping in all those countries whose citizens were on board IC 814 in the negotiating and diplomatic process.

No doubt, the western media has harped on the BJP being a Hindu nationalist party and this has sent its own signals to the Islamic countries, not making things easier for the NDA government. But on its part, the Vajpayee government has not made any extra efforts with these 58 countries since it came to power. The Foreign Minister has gone to hardly any Islamic country in the last two years.

It is personal links made by a prime minister or a foreign minister that come in handy during a crisis, when they can just pick up the phone and talk to their counterparts on the other side.

China8217;s strategic relations with Pakistan are well known. But Islamic fundamentalism is an issue of as much concern to China, Russia, Iran and the Central Asian republics as it is to India.

Even the friendly8217; South Africa did not stand by India. For decadesIndia pl-eaded South Africa8217;s cause, projecting the fight against apartheid as an extension of its own freedom struggle. No effort has been made to defuse the tension which had crept in the relations between the two countries two years ago at Durban when Nelson Mandela had made a reference to Kashmir, and Vajpayee had publicly rebutted him. When Mandela wanted to come here before laying down office, India was cool to the idea.

It is true that there is no point harki-ng back to the old order in this unipolar world. It is also true that India has had its back to the wall since Pokharan II. But we have to get on with building new relationships. The impression left by the hijacking is one of India8217;s increasing isolation.