With former ambassador Frank Wisner being appointed President Clintons special envoy to Russia, the appointment of his successor in New Delhi hangs in the balance.
Senator Jesse Helms, who chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said that former Massachusetts governor William Weld was crazy for not wanting to go to India as US Ambassador.
At the same time Helms said he has no problem with former Ohio Governor Richard Celeste, a Democrat, being posted to New Delhi if thats what India wants.
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President Clinton has nominated Weld to be the new US envoy to Mexico, but Helms said Weld should forget about going to Mexico except as a tourist and instead consider India as a destination as Ambassador.
Helms has refused to even schedule a hearing for Weld, a progressive Republican who, according to Helms, is unqualified for the post in Mexico because he is soft on drugs.
Weld has supported the medical use of marijuana and a needle, exchange programme for addicts. He is also pro-abortion. He recently resigned as Governor of Massachusetts with a little more than a year left in his second four-year term to challenge Helmss refusal to afford him a fair hearing.
Weld has indicated that he is not interested in India or any other post and vowed to fight for the Mexico ambassadorship and accused Sen Helms of ideological extortion. He has said Helmss opposition to his nomination has nothing to do with drug policy, but everything to do with the future of the Republican Party.
In plain language, I am not Senator Helmss kind of Republican. I do not pass his litmus test on social policy, nor do I want to, he has said.
Sen Helms, who was here to deliver the keynote address at the 14th annual convention of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, said, He (Weld) is crazy not to go to India. He is crazy not to take India as a diplomatic posting.
But he denied that he was being condescending to India or sought to embarrass India by suggesting that Weld, whose chances he publicly deflates of being envoy to Mexico because he perceives him as undiplomatic and inexperienced, is good enough to be ambassador to New Delhi because it is an easier post.
What I meant was, Sen Helms explained, and what I told the President was that he can go to any country he (Clinton) wanted to send him to provided the country was not pumping cocaine into the United States.
I dont want him to go to Mexico or any other country that is exporting illegal drugs into the US, he added, and asserted, he (Weld) is weak on drugs.
We need someone who is forceful over there, Sen Helms said, and reiterated that he is crazy not to take India.
But when told that Celeste was widely rumoured to be the candidate the White House is considering nominating as the next ambassador to India, Sen Helms said, Well, if India likes him, I have no problem with him.
India is one of the best friends we have and I hope it considers us a good friend and if India likes to have him (Celeste), I have no problems with it, he stated.
Congressional lawmakers such as Rep Sherrod Brown, who was in India for Mother Teresas funeral, have said that President Clinton will nominate Celeste as the new envoy to India once the controversy over Weld ends.
Celeste, 59, is familiar with India, having served as staff assistant from 1963 to 1967 in New Delhi to then Ambassador Chester Bowles. He was head of the Peace Corps from 1979 to 1981 and his familiarity with India was reinforced when he led a trade mission there when he was Governor in 1989. He is well known to President Clinton, since both were governors about the same time.
A senior State Department official told IANS: We need a high-profile ambassador to succeed Frank Wisner, because he is a hard act to follow.