Powell playback, generally

It seems that the object of the remark is none other than General Pervez Musharraf, the man who led Pakistan into the Kargil conflict in mid-1999. Evidently, Powell made the comment when he called Singh last week (one of many calls) to reassure him that Washington was, indeed, leaning on the General.

Beijing weather report

Prime Minister Vajpayee’s weather reports are beginning to read like diplomatic barometers. With the skies still clouded with both tension and confusion, China’s ‘‘all-weather friendship’’ with Pakistan seems to have taken precedence over Beijing’s newly burgeoning relationship with New Delhi. Seems that at the CICA security conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan — which will be attended by both the PM and Musharraf — that takes place on June 4-5, the PM will not be meeting Chinese president Jiang Zemin. This despite Russian president Vladimir Putin’s efforts to try and arrange an encounter between Vajpayee and Jiang. Vajpayee was supposed to be quite keen, but clearly, Jiang, whatever he may have thought, did not want to seem publicly disloyal to an old friend.

Still, the present tension between India and Pakistan doesn’t mean that New Delhi’s giving up on its roadmap with Beijing. An ‘eminent persons group’ meeting between the two sides is being held over the next couple of days in the Chinese capital. Will South Asia come up in the talks? Only the tea-leaves that reflect the cloud formations will tell.

Another Powell in the region

It’S a long, long way from Cedar Falls, Iowa, in the grain heartland of the United States, to Islamabad, but that’s where Nancy Powell (no relation to Colin Powell, US Secretary of State) is headed as America’s newest ambassador to Pakistan. Wendy Chamberlin is currently serving out her last days in a country that is now directly host to US troops fighting terrorism, but she asked to go home and not only because her daughters wanted out of Pakistan.

Powell will make her way from Accra, Ghana, and although she’s known in Washington as an ‘‘Africa hand’’, she seems to have most definitely cut her diplomatic teeth serving in this vastly complex and complicated region. For a start, Powell knows India well. She was once the counsel-general in Kolkata, then the political counsellor in the US embassy in New Delhi from 1993-95, deputy chief of mission in Dhaka till 1997 as well as the Nepal desk officer on the South Asia desk back in the State Department.

Meanwhile, there’s yet another India hand going places in the US. Elizabeth Millard, currently in the political section in the US embassy here is joining the National Security Council as one of the officers responsible for South Asia. She succeeds Harry Thomas, a big man known for his big laugh when he was once in Delhi as well.

What’s in a name? Ask Pak

Pakistan’s evocatively named Ghauri and Ghaznavi missiles which were launched on consecutive days over the weekend, were named in response to India’s ‘Prithvi.’ Seems Islamabad did not quite comprehend that the Indian scientific establishment used the name Prithvi (earth in Hindi) as part of their ‘‘natural elements’ series (Akash, Agni etc), and thought that it referred to Prithviraj Chauhan. Ghauri then became a natural name for the Chinese missile bought wholesale by Pakistan, since it was the 11th century king, a native of Ghor in Afghanistan, who finally managed to defeat the Hindu king, along with some help on the way from another Hindu king, Jaichand.

‘Ghaznavi’, according to the same logic, refers to Mohammed of Ghazni, who ransacked the Somnath temple 17 times in the tenth century.

Apart from the fact that the naming of its missiles shows the Islamabad establishment’s strangely virulent anti-Indian bent of mind, maybe India’s putative deputy chief of mission to Pakistan, TCA Raghavan (currently, officer of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh), could possibly teach a more truthful interpretation of history to his hosts once he finally reaches Islamabad.