A Pakistani Connection In NY

T he Pakistani lineup at Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq’s recent meeting with President Asif Zardari in New York was stunning. While foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and foreign secretary Salman Bashir were obvious participants since they were attending on Zardari, it’s the presence of two others that has set tongues wagging here. One was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani.

The other was Islamabad’s envoy to New Delhi, Shahid Malik, who apparently flew to New York for the 45-minute meeting. Haqqani is a significant addition to the team. He is said to be one of the three Pakistanis who wield considerable influence with the Obama Administration, the other two being Afghanistan expert Ahmed Rashid and leading political and strategic affairs analyst and Huffington Post columnist Shuja Nawaz.

Suffice to say, Haqqani’s takeaway from the meeting with the Mirwaiz is likely to be a significant input into Obama’s evolving South Asia policy. Analysts here are wondering what New Delhi-based Malik put on the table for discussion.

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There’s a telling irony in the name that’s being considered to succeed Gopal Gandhi as Left-ruled West Bengal governor. Shivraj Patil is said to be the frontrunner for the job. Considering that the CPI(M) had blocked his nomination as UPA candidate for the post of President of India, Patil seems to be an odd choice.

Although the union government has not made up its mind yet, nor has it sounded out the Bengal government, Left circles are already buzzing about Patil. And surprisingly, there seems to be little hostility to the idea.

This is clearly not a case of sauce for the goose also being sauce for the gander. Maybe after the Left’s stormy and fractious relationship with Gandhi, Patil’s laidback approach will come as a relief. He’s known to stick to the rules and play by the book, unlike Gandhi who had a unique interventionist style of functioning.
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RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat may have taken a leaf out of Rahul Gandhi’s book. Aware that overhauling a huge, ancient organisation like the Congress is not easy (he has his father Rajiv’s failures to draw on for lessons), Rahul is engaged in parallel activities outside of the main structure. He’s creating a youthful organisation that could replace the ancient regime when it’s finally ready.

Bhagwat has embarked on a somewhat similar project in the BJP. While the traditional party organisation fumbles and stumbles its way through a nasty leadership battle, Bhagwat has put his pointsman in the BJP, Bal Apte, on several parallel projects.

One is the creation of a thinktank to ideate and craft a whole range of policies that would give coherence to the BJP’s future politics. It is unfortunate that the party has virtually no economic, defence, social or foreign policy views today. Bhagwat has set a few parameters for choosing members of this thinktank. One is an age bar. No-one over 55 will be allowed to join!

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Tailpiece
The essential sycophantic nature of Congress workers spilled over when Manmohan Singh visited Mumbai recently to campaign for the party in the assembly elections. They surrounded him and gushed that he is their lucky mascot. Apparently, Manmohan Singh was in Mumbai just before voting day in the Lok Sabha polls and the Congress-NCP swept almost all the city seats. Reminding him of that, the workers simpered and said they hope his Midas touch will help them strike gold again.