The proverbial can of worms labelled “Vijay Kumar, India’s high commissioner to Mauritius,’’ has been opened and it contents are hitting the fan in South Block. Having besmirched India’s name across the board in that tiny Indian Ocean island, Kumar is now being pulled out and transferred — to Zimbabwe. None other than Prime Minister Vajpayee, whose name Kumar is said to have liberally invoked while seeking a posting from his lotus-eating days as Consul-General in Sydney to Mauritius three years ago, gave the green signal for Kumar’s transfer.Kumar holds quite a record of sorts, in fact, for having been C-G in Sydney for over five years, even though then FS Raghunath wanted to post him to Uganda after an investigation into financial irregularities. But he saved himself by getting himself a clean chit from the highest authorities in the PMO. The MEA tried to hit back by passing him over for Grade II, but Kumar managed to get his way — none other than then Minister of State for Personnel Vasundhara Raje, a ministry under the direct control of the PM, was asked to help review his grades. Kumar is again in town seeking an audience with the powerful for a way out of his present impasse. Kumar is said to have antagonised both Mauritian PM Anerood Jugnauth as well as his number two Paul Berenger with his high-handed ways. There were even dark rumours about a liaison, who went on to lodge a complaint. Add to that financial misdemeanours and you have a cocktail of a scandal. The only good thing to come out of Kumar’s posting to Zimbabwe is that Talmiz Ahmed, earlier supposed to be going there from the splendid job he did in Saudi Arabia, will now be moving elsewhere.The Mishra who mattersIn his capacity as National Security Advisor, Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra seems to be undertaking the most important visits abroad, meeting all the key folks on the foreign policy front, besides, of course, advising the PM on New Delhi’s vision thing. As a former career diplomat, Mishra has made no bones about his interest in foreign affairs. And although he was in Tokyo conducting a ‘‘strategic dialogue’’ when Vajpayee rolled the dice again on Pakistan from Srinagar, Brajesh Mishra has clearly become ever more synonymous with South Block. Over the weekend, he has been in Kabul and Teheran — meeting his NSA counterparts, of course, and getting first-hand accounts of covert Pakistani support for a regrouped Taliban in southern Afghanistan, as well as the impact of the Iraq war from neighbouring Iran. In the US, from May 7, Mishra will meet the creme de la creme of US establishment, including Armitage at Heathrow on his return journey. In contrast, there’s External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, so low-key in this high-profile ministry that he decided to ‘‘preemptively strike’’ against Pakistan in Parliament. As if to underline his flight from the core business of foreign policy, Sinha travelled to Botswana and Tanzania (and to that evocative Tanzanian province Zanzibar) over the weekend. Nothing wrong with that except that he was travelling within days of the PM announcing a key initiative on Pakistan.Delhi ain’t no closer to DhakaA conflict of interest is occurring right beneath the nose of the Indian embassy in Washington, but no one seems to sit up and take notice. Joseph Crowley, the Democrat co-chair of the US-India Caucus in the US, was recently sent on a junket to India along with a handful of other Democrats — this, when the Republicans are solidly and ideologically in power in the US — and CII was asked to pick up the tab in Delhi. Turns out, Crowley continues to be also chairman of the Bangladesh Caucus and refused to give it up when he was elected to the India Caucus late last year. India hands in Washington point out that at the last House International Relations Committee hearing in the US Congress, Crowley only asked questions relating to Bangladesh. Apart from the embassy, what are India’s lobbyists, Akin, Gump, Hauser, Feld & Strauss, appointed for the not-so-inexpensive fee of $50,000 a month doing? Foreign Minister for Finance?Meanwhile, Sinha seems to have decided to return to his pet project, economic diplomacy. He has appointed an ‘‘economic diplomacy’’ committee in the MEA, headed by N K Singh, most famously sinecured in the Planning Commission. Senior MEA diplomats are on the committee as well, such as Secretary Shashank and additional secretary Rajiv Sikri. Sinha knows too that economics are the bread and butter of domestic and foreign policy. The FTA with Sri Lanka is doing just fine and an FTA-2 is on the cards. MEA recently persuaded Commerce secretary Dipak Chatterjee to hand over a draft FTA to his Bangladeshi counterpart — who refused to take it, despite much cajoling. With Nepal too, evidently, things are said to be looking up. Problem is, while these relationships are the salt of the earth, none of them are what newspapers consider Page One material.
