‘One PM adviser is capable of changing advice mid-sentence, as that is what PM wants to hear’
Former Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, Hardeep Singh Puri spoke to Geeta Mohan on the failures of Indian diplomacy in the context of the Devyani Khobragade case. Excerpts:
On India-US ties being affected by the Devyani Khobragade case:
This is something which is bound to have serious consequences for the conduct of bilateral relations between India and the United States. I must submit that I have doubts about this automatic forgetting and getting back to business as usual.
On Indian diplomats being body searched:
I fail to comprehend as to why we didn't introduce reciprocities in terms of immunities and privileges and in terms of courtesies much earlier. In 2010, our then ambassador to US, Meera Shankar was subjected to an aggressive body search while going through one of the US airports. Around the same time, when I was travelling from Austin, Texas to JFK, I was asked as per the new procedures that they would like to touch my turban, etc, to which I responded by saying that they were not entitled to do so even under their own laws. So I was kept waiting till they discovered what their laws were and that they also discovered that I could pat my own turban and then make my hands available for a swab. I didn't report the incident; I merely asked the consul general, who was travelling with me to send the report to the Ministry and to the embassy in Washington. Why were reciprocal methods not introduced by Government of India, by the Ministry of External Affairs, by the then Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao at that point of time? We are talking about 2010, we just had been elected to the Security Council and I'm not aware of reciprocal methods having been introduced since then to this point of time.
On government's strong reaction on the Khobragade case:
I think there has — over the last five years, if not longer — been a systematic undermining of the institutions for foreign policy formulation and implementation. Even now, if you look at the reciprocal actions... The withdrawal of identity cards in order to enforce reciprocities took place only after all efforts failed, but what are those efforts... You had a senior diplomat hand-cuffed and strip-searched... Perhaps I'm not entirely wrong but if this incident had taken place in December 2012 and not in December 2013, when we are a few months away from the general elections, may be the reaction of the political class of India, as in who are in government and responsible... Let's be clear, I think they were left with no option.
On Washington's treatment of Indian diplomats
I would say that the way the political class has behaved... I mean that you didn't allow your foreign ministry to do its job. For most part of last year, prior to the September (UN) General Assembly session, it's an open secret that the embassy in Washington and the MEA in New Delhi were very busy first soliciting an invitation for a visit (by the Prime Minister) to Washington and then making sure that lunch was thrown in. Now, if that is the basis on which professional diplomats are made to operate, obviously the other side will not take you seriously. I mean what was to be achieved by a visit when it was absolutely clear that we have a lame duck government in India? Of course it's a different matter that when PM was in Washington, the vice-president of the Congress party chose to do a press conference and change the direction of the discourse in the other area.
On PM's advisers:
The PM may like advisers who give him advice of what he wants to hear. I mean one of the advisers, who is a very dear friend of mine, is even capable of changing his advice half way from a sentence because he knows that's what the PM wants to hear. So you have peculiar situations... You have a situation in which a three-week long incursion in the Depsang Valley in Ladakh is described by the External Affairs Minister of this country as a pimple on a beautiful skin.
Former Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, Hardeep Singh Puri spoke to Geeta Mohan on the failures of Indian diplomacy in the context of the Devyani Khobragade case. Excerpts:
On India-US ties being affected by the Devyani Khobragade case:
This is something which is bound to have serious consequences for the conduct of bilateral relations between India and the United States. I must submit that I have doubts about this automatic forgetting and getting back to business as usual.
On Indian diplomats being body searched:
I fail to comprehend as to why we didn't introduce reciprocities in terms of immunities and privileges and in terms of courtesies much earlier. In 2010, our then ambassador to US, Meera Shankar was subjected to an aggressive body search while going through one of the US airports. Around the same time, when I was travelling from Austin, Texas to JFK, I was asked as per the new procedures that they would like to touch my turban, etc, to which I responded by saying that they were not entitled to do so even under their own laws. So I was kept waiting till they discovered what their laws were and that they also discovered that I could pat my own turban and then make my hands available for a swab. I didn't report the incident; I merely asked the consul general, who was travelling with me to send the report to the Ministry and to the embassy in Washington. Why were reciprocal methods not introduced by Government of India, by the Ministry of External Affairs, by the then Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao at that point of time? We are talking about 2010, we just had been elected to the Security Council and I'm not aware of reciprocal methods having been introduced since then to this point of time.
On government's strong reaction on the Khobragade case:
I think there has — over the last five years, if not longer — been a systematic undermining of the institutions for foreign policy formulation and implementation. Even now, if you look at the reciprocal actions... The withdrawal of identity cards in order to enforce reciprocities took place only after all efforts failed, but what are those efforts... You had a senior diplomat hand-cuffed and strip-searched... Perhaps I'm not entirely wrong but if this incident had taken place in December 2012 and not in December 2013, when we are a few months away from the general elections, may be the reaction of the political class of India, as in who are in government and responsible... Let's be clear, I think they were left with no option.
On Washington's treatment of Indian diplomats
I would say that the way the political class has behaved... I mean that you didn't allow your foreign ministry to do its job. For most part of last year, prior to the September (UN) General Assembly session, it's an open secret that the embassy in Washington and the MEA in New Delhi were very busy first soliciting an invitation for a visit (by the Prime Minister) to Washington and then making sure that lunch was thrown in. Now, if that is the basis on which professional diplomats are made to operate, obviously the other side will not take you seriously. I mean what was to be achieved by a visit when it was absolutely clear that we have a lame duck government in India? Of course it's a different matter that when PM was in Washington, the vice-president of the Congress party chose to do a press conference and change the direction of the discourse in the other area.
On PM's advisers:
The PM may like advisers who give him advice of what he wants to hear. I mean one of the advisers, who is a very dear friend of mine, is even capable of changing his advice half way from a sentence because he knows that's what the PM wants to hear. So you have peculiar situations... You have a situation in which a three-week long incursion in the Depsang Valley in Ladakh is described by the External Affairs Minister of this country as a pimple on a beautiful skin.
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