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DIPLOMACY: INDIANS ABROAD
NEW GRUMBLES
The growing number of political appointments is fuelling
disgruntlement in the Foreign Office
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SPEEDY TRANSFERS: Nambiar (below) and Gandhi (above) are moving
out
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For almost two decades
now there is an unwritten rule worked out between the PMO and the mea
that the number of political appointees as ambassadors should be around
six. There were practical reasons for such an arrangement. At that level
it would not seriously impact the professionalism of the service or stymie
the promotions of deserving career diplomats. But B.K. Agnihotri's appointment
as roving ambassador saw the number of such appointees reach an unpalatable
10 for the mea. The embassies that these people head are in Sri Lanka
(Gopal Gandhi), US (Lalit Mansingh), Fiji (I.S. Chauhan), Russia (K. Raghunath),
Denmark (H.K. Dua), UK (Nareshwar Dayal), Surinam (Kamla Sinha), Kazakhstan
(Syed R. Hashim) and Nepal (I.P. Singh is tipped for the post). Many in
this list are former foreign service officers but in reappointing them
the Government has blocked avenues for serving officials.
If disgruntlement in the foreign service has
been rising, the recent major reshuffle of key postings in the ministry
has fuelled it further. Vijay Nambiar, who took over as high commissioner
to Pakistan in August 2000, is being shifted to New York as permanent
representative at the UN even before he can complete a two-year tenure
in Islamabad. With the announcement coming shortly after the Agra Summit
there was a feeling that he was being summarily moved out. However, the
mea hotly denies the linkage and points out that Nambiar had served as
consul in the UN during 1979-82 and had handled the multilateral body
in various capacities at the mea.
Ronnen Sen, who is currently the Indian envoy
to Germany, will take Nambiar's place. While Sen is considered a competent
officer he may have problems dealing with the Pervez Musharraf Government
as he was handling the back channel diplomacy with Pakistan during the
Benazir Bhutto regime.
Another shift that has caused a stir is that
of Gopal Gandhi, India's high commissioner to Sri Lanka, who will head
the London high commission. Gandhi had barely finished a year in Colombo
and will replace Nareshwar Dayal, who has been given a one-year term post-retirement
till December. A four-year stint as the director of the Nehru Cultural
Center and minister for culture in the UK in the 1990s is one of the reasons
for Gandhi being chosen.
While there is bound to be grumbling about transfers,
it bodes ill for the service if they are done in an ad-hoc manner and
norms are thrown to the winds.
—Shishir Gupta
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METRO TODAY
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