Maran holds sway, India sits pretty at WTO

Asked at a briefing what he thought of President Bill Clinton’s address in which he supported the cause the Seattle protestors, Maran chortled, “Actually, he spoke like Lenin or Stalin.”

Slack-jawed officials scrambled to strike the remark off the record, but a few minutes later, the good minister repeated it to a reporter of the Seattle Times, who joyfully scribbled the most quotable quote of the meet.

As forthe protests themselves, the minister told a NRI dinner meeting it could not have happened if the administration did not want it to happen. “There are many IAS civil servants in my delegation who began their careers as district collectors. We could help them control the protestors,” Maran joked.

The audience, including a couple of Washington Congressmen and several Boeing executives, cracked up.

“Who would have thought we would have heard such slogans (like espousing workers causes) in the headquarters of American capitalism?” Maran added for good measure.

But when it comes to business, Indian officials say Maran is a tough cookie who is knowledgeable and quick to grasp the situation.“He is right on the ball and he knows the issues,” an official with the Indian delegation said. A sometime industrialist and businessman, Maran is pragmatic and tough without being too rigid, said another.

The Indian minister was the cynosure of many Third World delegations as he sat at the head table withPresident Clinton, WTO Director General Mike Moore and USTR Charlene Barshevsky during a luncheon meeting on Wednesday. The buzz among the delegates was that India was India, Brazil and Canada were among the countries Washington regarded as weighty members who needed to be wooed and hence the placement at the head table.

As it turned out, the President held center stage, and with the formidable Moore, a former boxer, ensconced between Maran and Clinton, the Indian minister managed to get only a few sentences edgewise. “We are looking forward to your visit to India, Mr President,” Maran told the President. “I shall definitely be coming,” Clinton replied, personally confirming the trip.

But at the multilateral trade talks, the negotiations have been painfully slow and the impatience is beginning to show in the Indian delegation, which believes it has come better prepared than ever before for such a meet. Thanks to the delay caused by the protests though, the meet is progressing behind schedule with talksessions telescoped.

Many delegates believe that under the cover of the ensuing confusion, the United States is hijacking and “fixing” the agenda. Working committees formed to discuss the crucial issues like market access and investment are headed by delegates from countries like Fiji and Lesotho which have little expertise to preside over the complex issues.

Faced with tremendous pressure from the US and other western countries and overwhelming odds, Maran and the Indian delegation has taken the simple position that they will not agree to anything that compromises India’s national interest.

“As the US trade representative herself has said, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” Maran told reporters. “We have already said we will not accept a fait accompli. We will not be party to a surprise.”

But fait accompli — take it or leave it — may just be what’s round the block unless the Indians relent. And they are not about to do that. On the two hot button items of labour and agriculture,the US and its allies are turning on the heat, coaxing and cajoling developing countries like India while commandeering the less developing countries — the basket cases –with freebies.

Shorn of jargon, the US and other farm giants want market access which would enable them to sell just about any agricultural produce, something India feels will be a great threat to its hard earned self reliance in food production. So the one compromise in the draft the two sides are working on is to include language that provides some assurance of food security and rural development should the western countries have their way with market access.

As the WTO meet staggers into day three, delegates from 135 countries scurry from meeting to meeting working on drafts and statements on issues relating to the everyday life of people around the globe. The subjects under discussion are staggeringly vast and complicated — from food to labour to life forms and e-commerce. Plodding through the mountain of facts and a myriad views,one delegate confessed that “human knowledge had become too vast for the human mind.”

Murasoli Maran will need more than his writing skills to script a happy ending to a story that will affect India for all times to come.