To pillory External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is grossly unfair. He is a decent, polite, soft-spoken, and non-combative person. He conducted himself with restraint in Islamabad. He stuck to his brief and, being the sensible man that he is, he did not emulate the brashness of his Pakistani counterpart, whose rhetorical excesses do not contribute to the enhancement of civility.
Our American friends seem to have learnt no lessons from the Vietnam folly. Nor from their failed invasion of Iraq, in search of non-existent weapons of mass destruction. They are now caught in an un-winnable combat in Afghanistan. Seventy plus luminaries met in Kabul earlier in the week for a day, pledged billions of dollars to rescue Afghanistan and its people from their cruel fate. The leaders pledged to transfer security and finances to the Hamid Karzai government by 2014.
Will President Karzai or his government be around in 2014? I, for one, certainly hope so. President Karzai has his plateful of woes — Taliban, Al Qaeda, corruption, civil war, abject penury, Nato and Pakistan. His speech was peppered with idealistic phrases. He would lead his “people from poverty to prosperity and from insecurity to stability”. Not only that. He excelled himself and was almost lyrical, “Our vision is to be the peaceful meeting place of civilisations... Our location in the centre of the new Silk Road makes us a convergence point of regional and global economic interests.” If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If tulips were watches, I would hang one by my side. I wish you luck and success, Mr President. You need both.
The unpleasant truth is that a diplomatic jamboree of 70-odd ministers, 700 advisers and security personnel cannot in one day come up with a solution for so intractable a problem as Afghanistan (there always is plenty of surface conviviality and fake sincerity). The Nato troops cannot cut and run. US President Barack Obama has sacked one General. Let’s see what General David H Petraeus produces. The unfortunate reality is that the Americans simply do not have an adequate understanding of Asia, with the exception of Japan. Yet, they call the shots.
I read S M Krishna’s speech at the Kabul meet with much interest. His candour could not have gone unnoticed. He said, “The international community must learn lessons from past experience at negotiation with fundamentalists and extremist organisations, and ensure that any peace process is conducted in an inclusive and transparent manner.” Even the thickest diplomats could not have missed the point Krishna made.
A word about Hillary Clinton. She has turned out to be an asset to Mr Obama. She is on the ball, intellectually from the top drawer, does her home work, has immense energy, is amiable, conscientious. She has what one of the country’s very good men, Benjamin Franklin, said about an accomplished diplomat: “Sleepless tact, immovable calmness and a patience that no folly, no provocation, no blunder can shake.”
When it comes to India and Pakistan, she finds herself between a rock and a hard place. George W Bush was not a complex personality. For him, India came first. For Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton, Pakistan is an old, trusted friend, a natural ally and an invaluable strategic partner. India is in a different league and indispensable for world peace and security. India is not, never has been and never will be, a camp follower. Thanks to Mr Bush, America has finally seen the light. No hyphen, no India- Pakistan, only India and Pakistan and in that order.
When Mr Obama visits India later in the year, he will be surprised at the warmth of his welcome. In December 1959, President Eisenhower was greeted by a million Indians at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi. I have no doubt Mr Obama will be greeted by an even larger audience.
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The Commonwealth Games are 70 days away. Comparisons with China (Olympics) and South Africa (World Cup) are inevitable. I am confident that the Games will be a success. What I can’t stomach is the unseemly whining — “What a pity, Queen Elizabeth will not be opening the Games.” So what? “Holt the wonder 100-metre runner has dropped out.” So he has. Should that be a cause for despair? Certainly not. It would have been a pleasure to have him at the Games, but his not coming should not reduce the organisers of the Games to a state of demoralisation. This is unseemly for a great country like India.
Tailpiece
Is diplomacy passé ? Not quite. It is nonetheless under sustained onslaught — too many, too frequent summits of heads of state/government, and constant gatherings of G20, G8, G15 foreign and finance ministers make life very difficult for professionals. So often they have to cater to the whims and vagaries of their political bosses, who more often than not make easy things difficult and difficult things impossible.
Summitry has now become chronic. Diplomats have to make the necessary adjustments. They have one major advantage — their bosses come and go; they stay for 35 years in their jobs.
