Cloak-and-dagger in Copenhagen

Rarely has an Indian delegation to a multi-lateral negotiation been as bitterly divided as the one fighting the climate war raging in Copenhagen these days. It’s the talk of the town, not just here in New Delhi but in the Danish capital too, with hard-headed negotiators of the developed countries looking to exploit to their advantage the faultlines between environment minister Jairam Ramesh and his team of officials. Here’s one fissure that hasn’t healed despite Manmohan Singh’s efforts to play peacemaker. The PM’s special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, took the unprecedented step of flying home the day Ramesh boarded the plane to Copenhagen.

The ostensible reason: Saran was coming back to brief Singh and prepare for next week’s gathering of top world leaders which the PM will attend. But the grapevine says they didn’t want to share the same space, given their mutual hostility.

Sparks may still fly in Copenhagen because Ramesh is at loggerheads with the rest of the team as well. Although he has gone with a tight brief marked by deep red lines, there is apprehension here about the kind of pressures he may come under once he retires to the green room with ministerial representatives from other countries to hammer out an agreement to put up to Obama and company next week. Enter CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury. He will probably play gatekeeper to ensure there’s no deviation from the accepted national position. Significantly, Yechury has delayed his return from Copenhagen by a day so that he is there when the final document is released on December 19. He just wants to make sure there’s no last-minute hanky-panky. Who would have thought a dry subject like climate change could lend itself to cloak-and-dagger games!

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While Jairam Ramesh bore the brunt of an opposition walkout in the Rajya Sabha last week, another minister, also in the thick of fractious multi-lateral negotiations, won a vote of approval cutting across party lines. Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma was applauded, if grudingly, for his stand at the ongoing WTO talks by another WTO veteran, Arun Jaitley, who served as commerce minister in the Vajpayee government. Sharma’s secret: he has kept the opposition in the loop about the negotiations. Sharma regularly sends a team of officials to brief Jaitley, Yechury and D Raja of the CPI, as he disclosed in his reply to the discussion. Ironically, while climate change negotiations have become the prerogative of a few people, a group of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee oversees the trade talks to keep a consensus going. Maybe the PM should consider a similar mechanism for climate change so that India can present a united face for the difficult post-Copenhagen round.

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TAILPIECE
What is YSR’s son Jagan Reddy up to while Andhra Pradesh burns over Telangana?

Those who monitor his Telugu television channel Sakshi are intrigued by the kind of play being given to the demand for a separate Telangana state. They feel that the coverage has fanned the flames and they’ve conveyed their concerns to the top leadership of the Congress party. Is that why Pranab Mukherjee met Jagan for a one-on-one chat instead of receiving him with the rest of the Andhra MPs? Jagan has made no secret of his ambition to be chief minister, even at the cost of destabilising the incumbent, K Rosaiah, who has just been officially confirmed in the post.