Ronen's 'headless chickens' cause much flutter

In a major embarrassment to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), comments by the Indian Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen caused Parliament to adjourn, forcing an apology from Sen that was read out in the House.

The CPI(M) and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved separate privilege motions against the ambassador in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, amid demands by some MPs that government recall Sen.

Yesterday, Sen allegedly told reporters in Washington DC that critics of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal were like "headless chickens".

Initially, BJP raised the objections and demanded that Sen be summoned to the Bar of the House to apologise. It was later joined by the four Left parties, which otherwise support the UPA in Parliament but are major critics of the nuclear deal.

In his apology that was read out in the House by Mukherjee, Sen said, "My comment about running around like headless chickens looking for a comment here or a comment there was a tactless observation on some of my media friends and most certainly not with reference to any honourable MP."

However, CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat said in Hyderabad that he was not mollified "" his objection, he said, was that Sen sounded more like the Ambassador of the United States than the Ambassador of India.

When Sen clarified in his unconditional apology that he meant no disrespect to the MPs and that members of the media were his target for their directionless queries on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said, "If a diplomat calls the media headless chickens then his brain has become a vegetable." He added for good measure: "Whether organic or inorganic, I leave it to the media to decide."

MP Sitaram Yechuri said, "If this is what he said, he can't continue to be ambassador there. Government has assured that appropriate action will be taken. But we want him to be recalled."

In the interview to rediff.com, Sen said, "If you really look at it (the 123 Agreement), every single (concern) has been met. What is in the agreement which they are not satisfied with? Not one." Sen told the web portal that he couldn't understand the argument that "India was getting too close" to the US. "We are talking of the leading technological country in the world which everybody else seems to have cottoned on to, but our people have not or maybe they don't want to believe it," he said.

The remark that angered the Left the most appears to be his comment on the Hyde Act: "That is an issue that cannot even be considered. The law is very clear. It is on the books. If India tries to renegotiate this legislation it would have zero credibility." This brought a sharp reaction from the CPI(M) with Prakash Karat in Hyderabad lambasting Sen for toeing the US line rather than arguing India's case.

Sen made it clear in his apology that it was not his intention to cast aspersion on any individual or organisation. "However, if I have unwittingly hurt any sentiments, I offer my unqualified apologies," Sen's statement read out by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

The envoy prefaced his remarks by stating that some of the comments attributed to him in the "off-the-record" conversation were, however, made in his "personal capacity" and "do not reflect the positions of the government".

The diplomat admitted that he should have been more careful. "I fully recognise that such personal views, even in a private conversation, should have been expressed with better judgement and due decorum," he said. The envoy, however, said a number of comments were either "misunderstood or misquoted or quoted out of context".