Surendra Kumar - India and the World: Through the Eyes of Indian Diplomats

Individual Contributors

First published 2015

Reprinted 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwisewithout the prior permission of the author/s and the publisher.

ISBN 978-81-8328-384-7

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Wisdom Tree

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Contents

Reminiscences and Reflections

Ambassador Eric Gonsalves

Ambassador CV Ranganathan

Ambassador Alan Nazareth

India and the Neighbours

Ambassador Sudhir Vyas

Ambassador G Parthasarathy

Ambassador GS Iyer

Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia

Ambassador Rajiv Dogra

Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar

Ambassador Rajeet Mitter

Indias relations with select countries

Ambassador Meera Shankar

Ambassador Kanwal Sibal

Ambassador Arjun Asrani

Ambassador Ishrat Aziz

Ambassador Dinesh Kumar Jain

Ambassador Skand R Tayal

India and Regional Groupings

Ambassador Sheel Kant Sharma

Ambassador Yogendra Kumar

Ambassador KP Fabian

Ambassador VB Soni

Ambassador Nalin Surie

Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani

Ambassador Ranjit Gupta

Ambassador CM Bhandari

Ambassador N Ravi

India and the United Nations

Lt Gen Satish Nambiar

Ambassador Vijay Nambiar

Ambassador Hardeep S Puri

Ambassador TP Sreenivasan

Energy Security

Ambassador Bhaskar Balakrishnan

Ambassador Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty

Ambassador Suresh K Goel

Ambassador Surendra Kumar

Acknowledgements

Most sincere thanks are due to all the contributors without whose contributions and cooperation, this book wouldnt have been born. The Publisher and his entire team deserve huge thanks and appreciation for their painstaking hard work, patience and perseverance to complete this rather long and tedious project.

Introduction

In June 2012, while releasing the book, Ambassadors Club at the IIC, Dr Shashi Tharoor looked at me and quipped, I wish Amb. Surendra Kumar was also part of this book; he has a lot to share. May be, he will be featured in the second volume of the book! This unexpected remark triggered two questions in my mind. If Dr Tharoor says, I have a lot to share, can he be wrong? And if Amb. KV Rajan, the editor of the book didnt include me in the first volume, would he do that in the second volume? My inner voice said, No to both the questions! This negative reply had a salutary positive effect! Like Jamwant in the epic Ramayan who wasnt confident that he could really jump over the sea and land up in Lanka, I wasnt sure I could put together a big contributory volume. In a way, this is an accidental book. Had Shashi Tharoor not said what he said and had Amb. Rajan included me in his book, this book wouldnt have been born! So, I must acknowledge their unintended contribution. In my view, Dr Shashi Tharoor is the spiritual father of this book and Amb. Rajan, a distant uncle! There is also a sublime message: Shutting off a door in your face can, sometimes, provoke and spur focused action and bring out the best in you; it can produce positive results! But for the tongue lashing from their respective spouses, both Kalidas and Tulsidas, separated by centuries, wouldnt have metamorphosed into such great poets! I wish all potential poets get the message. If you want to be a poet, just plead with your better half to keep giving you a dressing down until you start penning poetry!

As I wanted to pick up the best brains of the Indian Foreign Service, I shot off letters soliciting an article each to those who had joined the Service in 1950s. Amb. Rasgotra excused himself citing his advancing age, Ambs. Romesh Bhandari, Natwar Singh and Chinmoy Gharekhan never replied. Former NSA, Brajesh Mishra had agreed in principle, but sadly passed away before we could meet. Ambs. Eric Gonsalves, Arjun Asrani, Alan Nazareth and CV Ranganathan, who had entered the IFS in early/late 1950s agreed to do the honour without any fuss.

Amb. G Parthasarathy who is seen on TV channels almost daily airing his views didnt respond to my request for a year-and-a-half. But when I reverted to him in the second half of 2013 armed with twenty-seven contributions from fellow diplomats, he gave in and emailed an interesting article about the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and her relations with India in five days. The stalwarts of 1960s: Ambs. KP Fabian, Ishrat Aziz, Ranjit Gupta, Kanwal Sibal, Vijay Nambiar, GS Iyer, VB Soni and TP Sreenivasan, turned out to be willing and cooperative contributors. The largest number of contributors come from the 1970s era; half-a-dozen of them having served as Secretary in the MEA. In fact, some of them hung up their boots in the diplomatic career in the last two years, so their comments and observations offer current and contemporary perspective to the book.

Extracting articles from thirty-two Excellencies Emeritus has been a hugely time-consuming and, at times, exhausting and exasperating experience. Barring a few, it meant shooting off twenty emails to each in nearly two-and-a-half years; sometimes beseeching, sometimes cajoling, sometimes persuasive, at times pressuring and threatening, in some cases invoking espirit de corps, in others massaging inflated egos with utter flattery and in a few cases resorting to emotional atyaachar . It also revealed who were my friends and supportive of my endeavours and who dismissed them with disdainful contempt. In fact, some friends, instead of lending a helping hand, created considerable difficulties. They left in the lurch after keeping me in suspended animation for months; some complicated matters by changing course midstream.

Some were upfront and frank. I emailed my invite to Vivek Katju past midnight and six hours later, I had two lines from him thanking me but regretting his inability to contribute. Swashpawan Singh did the same. A straight forward NO is more helpful than months long, vague, polite assurances which arent meant to be honoured; they delay the whole project. Another senior colleague from whom I have learned a lot, wanted to say no but was too polite to do so. Every time I talked to him on phone or in person, I would ask if I should take his silence as no and he would invariably respond, Not yet! Eventually, after nearly two years, he decided to come clean and tell me that he couldnt contribute. Two other dear friends made my life miserable by turning around and saying they werent writing on the subjects I had indicated to them in my emails but on totally different subjects for which I had never approached them in the first place! They werent bothered what it meant to me; suddenly I had to look for contributors afresh to step in their shoes after waiting for a long time. Eventually, after some tricky somersaults, I landed in the courts of two Samaritan Ambassadors who stepped in to fill in the required gaps but not without adding, I am doing it because I like you though I am aware that I wasnt your first choice! Hats off to them for their timely help and rescue operation.

Unfortunately, the contributions were received before the change of guard at the Centre. So all the initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi escape comments except Sudhir Vyass analysis of IndiaBhutan relations, which was submitted after Modis first overseas visit to Bhutan. In a project like this, there is a long gap between the birth of an article and its eventual appearance in public eye. Expectedly, some articles seem dated though they have been touched and brushed up by their respective authors. I wont be letting out a secret if I say that I had to endure a running battle with the Publishers team; very professional, meticulous, well-meaning and serious, they werent too pleased with the offerings of several Excellencies. In one case, they wanted to change the very first line of an article! I fought valiantly to save the honour of the plenipotentiaries and I guess, succeeded to a great extent, largely thanks to the understanding, accommodation and appreciation shown by the Publisher. I owe him a huge thank you.