Pulling the stringsThe British government has reason to be puzzled at the way in which some Indian ambassadors appear and disappear with amazing rapidity, even when by all accounts they are doing a fine job, while others linger on much beyond their prescribed tenures. Our present high commissioner in London Salman Haidar, an experienced and skillful diplomat, is to leave shortly though he took over just six months back.His somewhat less distinguished predecessor L.M. Singhvi stuck on for eight years with two extensions and survived four governments. Before Singhvi, the eminent journalist and human rights activist Kuldip Nayar managed to last out for barely 10 months.There is the niggling suspicion that the reason for Singhvi's extraordinary longevity and the short tenures of his immediate successor and predecessor can all be placed at the same doorstep.A politically powerful, very rich NRI business family, had an extraordinarily close relationship with the Indian High Commission duringSinghvi's tenure so much so that even the family's party invitations were delivered by the High Commission staff - and the family is known to exert its considerable clout to ensure that its nominee is installed at 9 Kensington Palace Gardens.The Foreign Office believes that with Haidar's departure, the position will go to the present Secretary (West) Lalit Man Singh, who is also eminently qualified. I would not, however, underestimate the clout of the NRI first family which probably has its own candidate in mind!Fall guysTrust the Government to turn our pluses into minuses. Salman Haidar's departure will unfortunately not merely reinforce the BJP's image of being anti-minority, but will dent in international diplomatic circles the country's major advantage that unlike our neighbour Pakistan we are a truly secular state.The campaign to oust Haidar was mounted even before the BJP had formally assumed power. A section of the media kept claiming that it is customary for political appointees asdiplomats to resign with the change of government. There is, however, no such convention. In India where coalition governments change frequently, it would spell an end to continuity in diplomacy if this principle were to be strictly followed.In May, Haidar returned to New Delhi to offer his resignation. Mysteriously the government neither accepted nor rejected the resignation, but simply kept it on hold. Now two months later, some in BJP circles are trying to make out a case that Haidar did not do enough to defend India's position on the nuclear tests.Haidar was in Delhi at the time of the nuclear tests and was asked by the ministry to remain in the Capital for further briefing, which is why he was absent in London for a week after Pokharan II. On his return, he persuasively argued India's case in two lengthy interviews to BBC.The pretext for removing Haidar is as weak and contrived as the one used by the Chandra Shekhar government in 1991 to hold Kuldip Nayar responsible for negligence in the deathby a heart attack of Chief Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee!Loud-mouthed meddlerTrust Murli Manohar Joshi to create diplomatic misunderstandings where none exists. A week ago, Joshi was quoted in the Press claiming that Japan's aid of several million dollars for the Gujarat cyclone relief was being turned down because of India's annoyance with Japan's stand on sanctions.The truth is rather different. The Japanese approached the Agriculture ministry about the humanitarian aid and the minister Som Pal in turn referred it to the Gujarat Govrnment which was only too happy to suggest various relief programmes. The Japanese asked the Gujarat Government to put in a formal request. This was the stumbling block since the Indian Government's long-standing policy is that India does not solicit aid for disasters the Latur earthquake was an exception.Incidentally, India has subsequently accepted medicines from Japan for cyclone relief victims without any problem. But who is going to tell Joshi, who asminister for Human Resources Development was not even concerned with the matter, to keep quiet?Undisciplined partyWhatever happened to the BJP's much-vaunted boast of being the most disciplined party! The report that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was ill was inspired by a senior BJP functionary who in the presence of half a dozen journalists falsely implied that even the RSS publication Panchjanya had referred to Vajpayee's ill health. In UP, the Brahmin lobby is busy instigating its caste brethren in the Congress to raise the law and order issue against the OBC BJP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.These days in the party, there is no chorus but a cacophony. The VHP talks of building the Ram Mandir regardless of the court order. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee denies it. BJP spokesman K.L. Sharma reiterates that the Ayodhya temple will be constructed despite the court order. Home Minister L.K. Advani concedes that Sharma spoke out of turn. But even after all this, Minister for Sports UmaBharati reiterates that the judiciary can't resolve the mandir issue. Who is the authentic face of the BJP? Or are all of them mukhotas while Ashok Singhal is the real boss?
