PM146;s men catch it on screen

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had taken a large entourage, comprising senior officials and mediapersons, to attend the BIMSAT-EC summit. But...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had taken a large entourage, comprising senior officials and mediapersons, to attend the BIMSAT-EC summit. But it was not attendance in the strict sense. The half-day summit was held in the foreign office and even members of the PM8217;s delegation had to watch the inauguration on a large screen in a conference hall. The journalists watched the live telecast on Channel 11 in the media centre. So much for 8216;8216;accompanying8217;8217; the PM for a summit meeting! But that8217;s the way, we were told, South East Asian conferences are now being organised.

Thai paper interviews Dr Singh in Delhi

Thailand8217;s leading English daily, The Nation, managed to get Manmohan Singh8217;s first interview, on the eve of the BIMSAT-EC. The interview was conducted in New Delhi, and the newspaper8217;s assistant editor flew back to Bangkok on Air India One. In it, Singh looked beyond the BIMSAT-EC experiment and said he was keen on India joining the ongoing ASEAN-plus-three process. He outlined how India was supportive of a 8216;8216;building block approach for greater cooperation among the Asian Community8217;8217;. Singh, incidentally wore a bandhgala at the summit for the first time as PM.

Mr Dixit at his diplomatic best

8226; Developments on the NSCN and WTO fronts, being played out in the sidelines of the BIMSAT-EC, livened up the otherwise insipid economic agenda. National Security Advisor J.N. Dixit made his first formal appearance when he briefed mediapersons on the NSCN talks in Chiang Mai. He was at his diplomatic best, parrying sensitive questions, and could not help recall how 20 years ago, he held the post of Joint Secretary, External Publicity.

Terror, security issues kept to sidelines

8226; This was one regional summit where terrorism and security issues did not top the agenda. This, despite the fact that, besides Dixit, there were three senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau present in Thailand. A two-member team, led by a Special Director were assisting in the NSCN talks, while another IB official was deliberating on the issue of terrorist camps along India8217;s North-Eastern borders. The operative of the Research and Analysis Wing R038;AW, based in Bangkok, by the way, had doubled up as media counsellor during the summit.

Fusion on media menu

8226; For members of the media with conventional culinary tastes, the MEA had taken care to request for an Indo-Thai mix of dishes. So, along with an exotic spread of sea food and authentic Thai, upma was included in the breakfast buffet and masala bhindi for lunch. At the river cruise, which the MEA had organised for the media, the surprise inclusions were boondi raita and daal halwa.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More