Column

Obama was keen to do a course correction so that he wouldn't be remembered in India as the person who tried to stall the Indo-US nuclear deal

While the world joined America in celebrating the momentous election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, one could not shake off the impression that our foreign policy establishment was in deep gloom. Even before Obama, as president-elect, announced his first appointment, mischievous stories were put into circulation about renewed interventionism in Kashmir, another bout of arm-twisting on non-proliferation and out-sourcing pressures. Once again, our mandarins seemed to be taking sides and like they did in Nepal and Pakistan not too long ago, they had put their money on the wrong guy. Top echelons of the government, fed on assessments from embedded Republican sympathisers in the larger foreign policy circle, had begun to believe wishful thoughts about a last-minute surge by McCain that would take him to the White House. So sure were they that they abandoned the usual precaution of staying neutral at election time and arranged for Manmohan Singh to meet McCain during the PM's September visit to Washington. They went ahead with it despite failing to fix an appointment with Obama, which, if it had materialised, would have at least signalled an even-handed approach. Wiser voices cautioned against any move that would appear partisan but they were ignored with the supreme arrogance of those with blinkered vision. What happened ultimately was almost a joke. McCain opted out of the meeting and sent air-head Sarah Palin instead. She came with four prepared questions and refused to engage in any discussion that went beyond the lines she had mugged up. On the other hand, Obama was gracious enough to write a warm personal letter to Singh, apologising for being unable to meet him due to campaign commitments.

The letter did nothing for the pro-McCainwallahs. They filed the document away and promptly forgot about it. Diplomats in the capital are rather mystified by the government's silence about something that they feel should have got due publicity. After all, it's not every day that a man projected to lead the world's most powerful nation takes time out of his busy election schedule to write down his thoughts on a bilateral relationship with another country. Clearly, Obama was keen to do a course correction so that he wouldn't be remembered in India as the person who tried to stall the Indo-US nuclear deal with a killer amendment to the Hyde Act. But our foreign policy tsars were focused elsewhere. It was only when Obama swept to historic victory and negative voices from India struck jarring notes amid all-round elation and joy that the fog lifted. The letter was hurriedly extricated from the bottom drawer and waved in front of the media as a desperate last-measure to deny our secret pro-Republican leanings. The interesting thing was that the initiative to go in for hasty damage-control, belated thought it was, came from Manmohan Singh himself. It was he who decided to field his low-profile special envoy Shyam Saran to talk to the media to try and set the record straight. If only his third eye had opened in time to see what the rest of the world, and for that matter, his desk officers, knew was coming on that historic day in November 2008.

TAILPIECE
Those who monitor power equations in Delhi corridors are wondering why Saran was picked to talk to the media, and not the National Security Advisor, MK Narayanan. It seems of late, there have been several complaints about Narayanan's off-the-cuff comments on foreign policy matters. The grapevine says he has been advised to keep a low profile for a while.