Column

There’s a decidedly naïve touch to American nuclear diplomacy in India. It shies away from the Left but aggressively woos the BJP and sundry other parties that cannot (even if they were favourably inclined, which they’re not) help the Manmohan Singh government to swing the much-debated nuclear deal. US negotiator Nicholas Burns’ engagement diary on his latest visit to New Delhi included an unpublicised meeting with Vajpayee’s former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra.

Away from the glare of television cameras, Burns spent 45 minutes with this stringent critic of the nuclear deal in a bid to soften his opposition. Mishra wasn’t impressed with Burns’ sugar-coated version of the terms of the nuclear agreement the US is hoping to conclude before George Bush runs out of time and political goodwill.

It makes one wonder why the American official spent so much time trying to convince him. It’s true that Mishra drafts the salvos Vajpayee fires at the government from time to time. But even a child knows that Singh can hardly afford to sail with the BJP on the nuclear issue if the Left refuses to climb on board. The government can live with the BJP’s opposition. It can bypass the Left only at its own risk.

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Given the current political equations, the list of MPs US Ambassador David Mulford rustled up for a dinner interaction with Burns made little sense. The invitees included Rashid Alvi, Abhishekh Singhvi and young Depinder Hooda of the Congress, Shahid Siddiqi of the Samajwadi Party, Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP, Jay Panda of the BJD and Robert Kharshiing of the NCP. Political lightweights all. None (except perhaps Panda) shape their party’s position on foreign policy issues, let alone something as complex as the 1-2-3 agreement Burns is trying to finalise with Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. The Left was conspicuous by its absence. Not that its MPs would have refused to dine at Roosevelt House. It’s just that no invitation went out to either the CPM or the CPI. Even without a Left presence to sour the mood, there were awkward moments during the course of the evening when some MPs bristled over what they perceived as American hustling on the nuclear issue.

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It’s ironic that the US is making more efforts to reach out to Indian opinion makers than the government is. The nuclear deal is a Manmohan Singh initiative but like the economic reforms he started as finance minister in 1991, Singh remains diffident about pushing an agreement that will seal a paradigm shift in Indian foreign policy. One MP commented that the Americans keep them better informed than the government does. The PM and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee have made a few statements in Parliament but surely, it requires more interactive persuasion to change decades of Cold War suspicion of the US.

TAILPIECE
Like Burns, who had to be pulled out of a preparatory trip to Germany for the G-8 Summit, the PM’s special envoy, Shyam Saran, was also derailed. He was forced to cut short his Himalayan trek and rush back in time for the unexpected resumption of the nuclear negotiations. As usual, our High Commissioner to Singapore, Jai Shankar, was flown in to conduct the technical level talks, prompting another round of critical murmurs from Singapore diplomats in New Delhi who see this as an unprecedented breach of protocol.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net