UNITED NATIONS (NEW YORK), SEPT 20: For Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the United Nations is home away from home. This may be his first visit here as the Prime Minister of India, but as a parliamentarian, he's been to the UN so often and is so seasoned in international diplomacy that he could have well run for Secretary General any day.Starting as a young lawmaker in the 1960s, Vajpayee has made many appearances here, including his oft-referred to speech debuting Hindi. He is so familiar with the working of the UN system that officials say he needs almost no help from the babudom in what he is going to say.Most often, in the 1980s and 1990s, Vajpayee has represented India in the UN's First Committee, which deals with disarmament.In a sense, it would be fitting if he were to make a landmark speech committing India to a de facto adherent to the nuclear test ban treaty, something he is expected to do.``He has complete mastery over the issue. He may have been in the Opposition all the time, buthere at the UN he represented India's cause well,'' said one diplomat who had dealt with the Vajpayee as Member of Parliament.When he was not articulating India's stand on disarmament, Vajpayee chose the Third Committee, where he was equally at ease with human rights issues. Strangely though, in all his many trips to the UN, Vajpayee has rarely come to Washington DC. Friends and diplomats say his last Washington visit may have been as far back as 1984. ``Maybe he is destined to come here only as the Prime Minister,'' says Shekhar Tiwari, his close offshore aide and a prominent BJP activist in the United States.Well, it certainly won't happen this time. Because as a matter of protocol, the United States has laid down - discreetly and politely - for many years that it would rather not have leaders visiting the UN for its General Assembly come to Washington, although there have been some rare exceptions.After all, some 150-plus heads of state and government come to the UN for the opening of its annualGeneral Assembly. How many can they favour with a Washington safari?So usually, the US President goes up to the UN and conducts bilateral meetings on the margins like he did last year with then Prime Minister Gujral and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief. This year, it is possible that he may meet Sharief, but not Vajpayee - an index of the tangled skein that is the nuclear issue. (On the other hand, Clinton himself will work the UN under the dark shadow of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. In fact, around the time he addresses the UN on Monday morning, he will also suffer the ignominy of having his videotaped testimony before the Grand Jury telecast on major cable news networks. If the two events clash, the joke is that the networks may run them on a split screen.)Technically though, a visit to the UN by a foreign leader is not even a visit to the United States. The United Nations is only geographically located in New York, but for all practical purposes it is considered an independent enclave. Although theagreement between the United States and the United Nations (when it was set up) guarantees access to all foreign leaders, Washington has been known to act cussed on occasions.In 1988, it refused a visa to Yasser Arafat, whose Palestine Liberation Organization had just been given observer status at the UN. Arafat is now a regular.Cuban President Castro is another special visitor to the UN. Other dictators like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi do not come. This year, the cynosure of all eyes will be Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, as Teheran returns to the mainstream of international diplomacy and begins to mend its fences with the western world, particularly the United States.Another controversial seat is Afghanistan's. Although the Taliban is in control of Kabul and most of the country, the UN seat is still held by Burhanuddin Rabbani, the president driven out of Kabul and into exile in 1996.Regardless of all this, Vajpayee will enjoy his own moment in the UN sun - this time as PrimeMinister.
