Myanmar policy

If you8217;re wondering why India wasn8217;t in tune with most of the world 8212; which not only roundly condemned the arrest of Burmese ...

If you8217;re wondering why India wasn8217;t in tune with most of the world 8212; which not only roundly condemned the arrest of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week, but also asked the SPDC to release her forthwith 8212; then the answer is simple. New Delhi has invited Than Shwe, Myanmar8217;s great leader, to visit this country. Now that doesn8217;t mean that India has a penchant for dictators, not a bit 8212; despite its continuing support of Hun Sen in Cambodia 8212; but only that New Delhi is determined not to run its foreign policy on the lines of bleeding heart Western liberals, who are also hypocritical to boot.

A visit by the Myanmarese military strongman Than Shwe to India would actually be quite a coup. First of all, it would show China, with whom Yangon has been closely allied for the last 40-odd years, that Myanmar wants to build an equally strong relationship with New Delhi. Secondly, India wants to duly offer its gratitude for Myanmar8217;s continued crackdown on insurgents in the Northeast who escape across the borders of Mizoram and Nagaland into Myanmar8217;s western provinces. Not least, New Delhi would also like to point out that it finds itself not in the least put out by dealing differently with two neighbouring dictatorships at the same time.

Welcoming Sharon

Speaking of strongmen, can Ariel Sharon be far behind? The latest on a visit by the Israeli Prime Minister to India is that it is now likely to take place around September. By then the Middle East 8216;8216;roadmap8217;8217; is expected to get underway, making it easier for Indians-with-a-conscience to accept as guest a man who once defended the concept of 8216;8216;natural growth8217;8217; in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory. Simply put, it meant the right of the Jewish family to proliferate and build on land that never belonged to them. The same Sharon has now of course seen the light, courtesy George Bush, and it leads to a dismantling of some of the selfsame settlements. He also has a commitment out of Washington that Palestine will end the madness of terror as part of the deal.

Now, it8217;s a fact that Israel 8212; in the face of US objections 8212; conducted the sale of the Israeli AWACS system it has key US components, the 8216;8216;Phalcon8217;8217;, to India, and that it has done many a deal with DRDO on the transfer of other sensitive high-technology. Many an Israeli journalist has, meanwhile, tried to draw similarities between India and Israel 8212; and Pakistan and the Muslim world that Israel is surrounded by 8212; justifying the brotherhood in defence matters along these lines. Despite L.K. Advani and then foreign minister Jaswant Singh8217;s theorising in the summer of 2000 in Jerusalem, that India8217;s non-recognition of Israel till 1992 was based on the large Muslim vote at home, that8217;s a tinderbox of an argument that8217;s quite simply, wrong.

Mind your language

India8217;s multiplicity of tongues means that most people grow up speaking at least a couple of languages at a time and that the freedom of speech in foreignspeak comes much more easily. Take Portuguese for example, not the easiest of languages and once ably described by the Economist as 8216;8216;windsurfing from consonant to consonant8217;8217;. Now Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee8217;s Hindi-Portuguese-Hindi interpreter so impressed Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 8212; during their encounter at Evian, France last week, on the margins of the 8216;8216;enlarged8217;8217; G-8 summit 8212; that he wanted to know who she was and where she had learnt her Portuguese from.

This diarist has already reported that the MEA8217;s decision to liberate the PM from the vagaries of the English language on his travels abroad last week meant the hiring of interpreters for all the people he met. So there were interpreters for German, French, Spanish and Portuguese, all flown in from Delhi to do the job. For the Russian encounter, meanwhile, the MEA8217;s own Shikha did the honours, while for the PM8217;s first meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao, IFS officer Pranay Verma was especially flown in from Beijing where he is currently posted. Merci. Xiexie. Danke. Spassiba.

Unseen hand

So what are the rules on the number of officers and staff who come to 8216;8216;help out8217;8217; at every station when the PM travels abroad? According to one count, its a whopping 18, others say it depends on the task at hand. The matter swam into view during Vajpayee8217;s visit to Evian for the enlarged G-8 summit last week, when the place began to teem with Indian officers, gentlemen and ladies in Lausanne across the lake from Evian, where the delegations stayed. At both places, there were at least 13 officers present, from missions like Geneva, Berne, Paris, Vienna, Lisbon, London, Brussels, The Hague and even Teheran, and that8217;s not counting the numerous 8216;8216;staff8217;8217; who were around. Separately, for the benefit of the media only, 11 people were hired locally, all at Summit rates and by the hour, except that most of the time there was little to do. In fact, the 8216;8216;media8217;8217; became quite the darling of the hour, with India8217;s permanent representative PR to the UN in Geneva, Hardeep Singh Puri, even getting himself listed as the 8216;8216;media person8217;8217; on duty for the duration of this leg of the PM8217;s tour. Except that the inimitable Puri had delegated the very capable T.P. Seetharam, another officer in the Geneva mission, to damage control events at the media control room, in his place. He never showed up himself, although his stamp was everywhere. From the personally-addressed gift to each journalist in their hotel rooms, to the fabulous dinner at the 12th century Swiss chateau on the last evening 8212; unseen hand or master of ceremonies, take your pick.