On Tuesday, just before leaving for a tour of African countries, Modi sent journalist-turned-politician MJ Akbar (65) to debut as a minister under Swaraj.
A senior minister recalls that a few months ago after the usual cabinet meeting at South Block, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had pleaded the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to shift her to a less-tiring portfolio, as frequent trips were telling on her health. She has a history of ailments like diabetes and hypertension. A few days later, the 64-year-old Swaraj was admitted to AIIMS, after complaining of chest pain and pneumonia. Knowing she was one of his best assets in the cabinet, Modi stoutly refused to shift her out of the ministry of external affairs, but promised to give her a capable minister of state (MoS) in order to lessen her burden.
On Tuesday, just before leaving for a tour of African countries, Modi sent journalist-turned-politician MJ Akbar (65) to debut as a minister under Swaraj. Along with other junior minister V K Singh, he will help Swaraj to draft foreign relations and plans for the Prime Minister's whirlwind tours.
Since India has been reaching out to an increasingly high number of countries, the MEA was obviously in need of more hands, and who would well-read, highly admired and experienced public figures like Akbar.
Analysts here draw parallels between his appointment and that of another erudite Muslim face Salman Khurshid, as junior minister to help ailing senior minister Dinesh Singh in 1993. A month after the demolition of Babri Masjid that had created an uproar in the Muslim world, the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao known as 'modern day Chanakya' brought in Khurshid to turn the tide in favour of Indian diplomacy. At that time, several countries were even equating Kashmir with Afghanistan and Palestine. But just a year after in 1994, Khurshid played crucial role in convincing Iran to drop the Organisation of Islamic Countries resolution supported by influential Western nations at the UN Commission for Human Rights to condemn India for human right violations in Kashmir.
An illustrious pedigree, an impressive author of several well-received books, including a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, Akbar had made his foray into politics as a Congress MP in 1989, thanks to his proximity to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. An articulate and moderate Muslim voice, he was recently elected to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. On the international fora, he will now be entrusted with the task of defending Modi government, at times on the strident Hindutva pitch, with his eloquence. A party spokesperson, he has often spoken on the government's foreign policies.
General V K Singh, who has been divested of his other portfolio (ministry of statistics and programme implementation), will also concentrate on the MEA. While Akbar is slated to take care of the West and West Asia, Singh will look after Africa, East, including China, and economic relations.
Sources here say, Akbar's presence will give an added impetus to the PM's 'Link West' policy and outreach to the oil-rich Muslim nations. He is also expected to handle matters like the Haj pilgrimage, according to sources.
India's engagement with the Middle East has been gathering momentum, with Modi having visited Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, and Qatar.
Lashing out at the concept of caliphate as propounded by dreaded terror groups like the IS and al Qaida, Akbar in a recently published article in Foreign Affairs traced their origins to the failures of Muslim countries, who after emerging out of the Mughal and Ottoman empires have not been able to come to terms with many requirements of a modern state, principally democracy, freedom of faith, gender equality, and economic equity. "Such failures are an invitation to an imagined past in the form of a caliphate or, in the case of suicide bombers, an imagined future in paradise," he articulated.
Further, he maintained that the tragic irony is that Islam historically flourished precisely because it left space for pluralism in faith and politics, banned female infanticide and gave women inheritance rights. "If Islam is in any danger today, it is from rogue Islamists who fail to recognise that the former glory of the Ottoman caliphate grew out of its policy of tolerance, such as providing refuge for Jews fleeing the inquisition in Spain and Portugal.
Long before the closed-minded caliphate of ISIS and its allies can hurt their declared enemies, they will devastate the faith of the faithful," he said.
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