Mystery of the India-Pakistan talks (Capital Buzz)
By IANSSunday, February 7, 2010
NEW DELHI - There are theories galore on what prompted India’s sudden offer to Pakistan for foreign secretary-level talks. It bears the imprint of the prime minister himself and the new national security adviser (NSA), many in the strategic community believe.
It so happens that Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao rang up her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir around two weeks ago and invited him to visit New Delhi for talks, barely days after Shivshankar Menon took charge as the NSA.
Unlike his predecessor M.K. Narayanan, who was said to have a hardline approach towards Pakistan, Menon, a former Indian envoy to that country, shares the prime minister’s enthusiasm for out-of-the-box thinking to turn around relations with Pakistan which Manmohan Singh clearly wants to be seen as a legacy of his prime ministerial tenure.
But some mysteries refuse to go away. Policy wonks are having a tough time trying to understand why it took Pakistan 10 days to respond when it has been relentlessly pitching for the resumption of composite dialogue.
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Rahul’s Bihar battalion
Rahul Gandhi is working to a plan, and there is no hint of “frustration” in what he is doing - never mind what the Shiv Sena says. Not many know that in January he sent 16 young MPs to Bihar to check out the Congress party’s prospects in various districts.
Among those who went were Sachin Pilot, Jitin Prasada, Priya Dutt and Madhu Goud Yeskhi, travelling to Patna, Darbhanga, Purnea, Samastipur, Sitamarhi, Kishanganj and the like, bringing back an outsiders’ perspective that the party may not have got from its own unit in the state.
And what they reported is heartening for the Congress’ comeback prospects in a state where they have been also-rans for nearly two decades.
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A cap on Padma awards?
With trouble over the Padma honours returning to haunt this year, a minister has suggested restricting the number of awardees to 100 ever year.
It’s the controversy over a Padma award to NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal and counter-insurgent Ghulam Mohammad Mir that has goaded the government to do some introspection and tighten the screening process.
Putting a cap on the number of awardees, feels the minister, would restore value to the awards and ensure proper screening of candidates.
The government announced 130 Padma awards this year and the home ministry has clarified that nothing was amiss in the award for Chatwal. But a section of the media is not about to let go of the story that has exposed networking and lobbying, even among the NRI community, behind the country’s top civilian honours.
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The Germans are coming!
Germany has been somewhat late in waking up to the potential of India, but now it’s pouring. Close on the heels of a large participation of German companies at the Auto Expo and at the World Book Fair came German President Horst Koehler and his wife Eva Luise, bringing with them a high-powered delegation.
The proactivity has in many ways been triggered by the presence here of Ambassador Thomas Matussek, an old India hand who was press counsellor here 25 years ago.
The city’s glitterati was there in strength at the residence of the ambassador mid-week, savouring a staggering fusion of German and Indian cuisine to symbolise the waltzing ties between the two countries which have decided to have “intensive ties across the board”.
In the nearly 20 years since Germany’s interest in India was spurred by its economic reforms, Indo-German trade has grown 400 percent, or an average of 22 percent year on year.
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Of happiness and Himalayan lament
In the technical jargon-ridden discourse on climate change, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley injected a dose of lyrical beauty and mystical fervour when he spoke at a climate meet in the Indian capital.
Recalling the pristine snow-capped mountains which were a backdrop when he grew up, Thinley rued that during his recent flight from Thimphu to New Delhi, he could only see large patches of brown and jagged rocky outcrops. The gods appear to have deserted the Himalayas, he rued.
He also introduced a new twist to the climate change debate, asking European nations to abandon excessive consumerism and embrace Gross National Happiness, a unique concept with which the Himalayan state measures its gross national product.
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Books fail to hook
The World Book Fair was expected to draw at least 100,000 visitors per day, but the numbers barely crossed the 1,000-mark, insiders say. So whatever happened to the love of reading?
Billed as the largest book bazaar in the Afro-Asian region, the fair did not live up to the hype. A curious sense of desolation hung over the 46,200-sq.metre area throughout the week after sundown.
Business was slow because the “meltdown has apparently tightened purse strings”, a publisher lamented. On Friday evening, more visitors flocked to the food stalls than to the 2,172 vends hosting 1,343 publishers from 17 countries.
“Where have the readers gone?” an old-timer at the fair asked.
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US envoy reaches out - on rickshaw
A politician by instinct, US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer continues to play to the gallery as he tries to reach out from beyond the high walls of Roosevelt House.
Unlike career practitioners of diplomacy, Roemer, a former Indiana Congressman, loves to talk a lot and reach out to people, shaking hands and cracking jokes as as he did on his trip to Nizamuddin Basti. He drove a cycle rickshaw during his latest journey to Bihar.
A dedicated foodie, he had proudly flaunted a heavy pan of chicken jambalaya at a festival of southern US food a few months ago.
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Whither SAARC meet?
The SAARC conference of home ministers in Islamabad from Feb 26 to 28 was big ticket news. After all, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram was to travel on the first such visit by an Indian minister to Pakistan since the 26/11 attacks. But it wasn’t to be.
A day after the Indian offer for foreign secretary-level talks to Pakistan became public knowledge, the SAARC meet was deferred. The reason given was that the dates did not suit the Nepalese home minister.
But seasoned diplomatic observers find the narrative deceptively simple and suspect a larger design. Nothing can stop conspiracy theorists!
