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Journalism of Courage
For the MEA and the PMO, speaking at cross purposes is an old habit which is reflected in the mixed signals of our Pakistan policy. But our Iran foreign policy is not a two-ring, but a three-ring circus. Mani Shankar Aiyar and his aide Talmeez Ahmed (both formerly from the IFS) believe that oil diplomacy should be insulated from the Ministry of External Affairs, and they have been conducting their own diplomatic initiatives in Iran for their pipe(line) dream. Not to be outdone, Natwar Singh wanted to be the first foreign minister to greet the newly-elected Iranian President Ahmedinejad and rushed to Teheran last month to emphasise the special ties between the two countries. Neither minister was bothered that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sent out the opposite signals to the US. Small wonder the Iranians now feel betrayed.
Formerly, when the PMO prevailed over the MEA, it was assumed that the late National Security Adviser, Mani Dixit, had got his way. But M K Narayanan, the new NSA, is more focused on whether RAW and IB chiefs are given two-year tenures and with cross border terrorism than Iran. The man who prevailed upon Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi to make a last-minute switch on the Iran vote at the IAEA meet was our ambassador to the US Ronen Sen. He was also, incidentally, the first to defend the decision even as the mandarins of South Block still slept.
Suited yes, suitable?
A report from Washington noted that the Americans consider Jaswant Singh a suitable candidate for the post of the UN Secretary General. But back home, the rank and file of the BJP is taken aback that Singh is emerging instead as a frontrunner in the race for party president. Singh is the choice of both Vajpayee and Advani, and has been acting as the latter’s emissary with the RSS. A Sangh Parivar man observed sarcastically that at least they have got to see the face of a man who had till now kept his distance from the RSS regional headquarters at Jhandewalan.
Singh appears to have become rather religious of late. He was seen recently sporting vermilion on his forehead and at press briefings has been quoting from the Guru Granth Sahib and the Vedas. Last week, he compared the hidden depths in Vajpayee’s statements to those of Tulsidas shlokas in Ramcharitmanas. But though well versed in the Hindu scriptures, Singh’s handicap is his accent and courteous mannerisms in the best traditions of an upper-class Anglo-Indian upbringing, which leave him a little out-of-sync with the party’s hoi polloi.
Old is gold
In the international arena, leaders like Tony Blair and George Bush are keen to flaunt their youthful looks as a plus point. Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, however, believes it is badge of honour to emphasise his 74 years. When Singh met Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in Teheran last month he observed that Ahmedinejad was perhaps the youngest president in the world, while he was certainly the oldest foreign minister. During his meeting with Sri Lanka’s late foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, Singh emphasised to journalists that he had to constantly remind Kadirgamar that he was six months older than him.
And does Singh really have to keep reminding his audiences that the world has changed greatly since he was last in the Ministry of External Affairs more than 15 years back?
Still in the running
Six months ago M Damodaran, a 1971 IAS officer, took over as chairman of SEBI. According to convention he was expected to resign from the IAS, but Damodaran remains in the service which means he may still be in the reckoning for a top job in the finance ministry if he relinquishes his SEBI post.
Not down or under dog
Photographs of Jagmohan Dalmiya during the aborted BCCI election tamasha show two men on either side of him. They are not Dalmiya’s aides as most assume but sports writers from Bengal. The duo of Sourav Ganguly and Dalmiya has assiduously cultivated the sports media in their home state.
But the Ganguly-Dalmiya duo miscalculated in assuming that the taciturn Chappell, who has been coach less than six months, would be decimated in the media war against two seasoned manipulators. For every sports journalist who got exclusive access to the Bengal tiger and Dalmiya there were many others disgruntled at being excluded from the favoured circle. The West Bengal press may have been near unanimous in demanding Chappell’s head, but in the rest of India there was strong support for the coach.
No longer untouchable
Subramaniam Swamy has been considered untouchable by the BJP ever since its formation in 1980. The former Jana Sangh MP had a nasty habit of taking potshots at the BJP’s star, Atal Behari Vajpayee. But nothing is static in politics and relations between the BJP and Swamy, president of the rump Janata Party, are obviously on the mend. Swamy has been interacting with RSS leaders including K Sudershan for almost a year and now it seems the BJP is also willing to break bread with him. BJP vice president Venkiah Naidu and Swamy shared the same dais in Chennai this week for a meeting on the Mitrokhin papers. Naidu, an Advani acolyte, would not have taken this step without the approval of the party president. But what Vajpayee thinks of Naidu’s move is another matter.
