Web Exclusive
|
Web Exclusive |
|
|
DAILY NEWS | ASTROLOGY | ARCHIVES | INDIA TODAY | WEB EXCLUSIVES | HOME |
|
|
|
21 UP The venue was the same: Hyderabad House, Delhi. Similar too were the seating arrangements within the shamiana on its lawns where the two heads of government were to sign the agreements and then address the media. Yet, the atmospherics was completely different. When US President Bill Clinton visited in March, the pandal was packed with reporters from all over the world vying to get just the right angle and a place in front. When Big Bill emerged, he had an air of informality waving to everyone, smiling at the cameras. In short, he was at his charming best. Despite the shortage of any firm agreements or statement of intent, Clinton's bonhomie signalled a major shift in the way the US was looking at India. In contrast, on October 3, when Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Hyderabad House after an hour of discussions, the lack of excitement in the media was palpable. The athletic Putin, dressed in a dark suit with a sober blue tie, was forced to restrain his lithe stride in order to keep pace with a shuffling Vajpayee. Before they arrived, ministers from the two countries signed and exchanged half-a-dozen agreements for cooperation in subjects ranging from science and technology to communications and energy with an almost funereal air. Finally when Putin and Vajpayee addressed the press, thanks to the problems of translation, any informality that the Russian president hoped to inject was thwarted. Yet, if the ceremonies lacked the flamboyance of the Indo-US encounter, the striking difference in the Putin-Vajpayee summit was that it was loaded with substance. The two sides went ahead and signed the declaration of strategic partnership --- a far-reaching set of principles that would guide relations between the two countries till the year 2010. Putin in his reply to a question from the media made it clear that the declaration was not going to be just hot talk. The two sides were chalking out achievable milestones for each year. Nor did he shy away from addressing such ticklish questions as Pakistan and Afghanistan making it clear that while India should get down to negotiating with its neighbour, Russia would like to join forces with Vajpayee in restraining the Taliban. If there was one word that summarise's Putin's style it is a phrase that is becoming increasingly popular on Moscow's streets: realnosti or Russian for get real. Putin is acutely aware of both his and Russia's limitations and is willing to be frank about it in public. In conversations with his close aides, the 47-year-old ex-KGB spy talks of himself as an ordinary person entrusted with an extraordinarily difficult mission. Apart from a brutal frankness about the sorry state Russia is in, Putin believes in a clear enunciation of how he plans to get it out of the mess. And he goes about the task of reforming as methodically as he probably collected information at his former job. The Kursk submarine tragedy has also had a major impact on the way he handled the public. For Putin realised it was not only important to lead but to be seen to be leading. Since then he makes it a point to be communicative and friendly especially with the press. In his Indian encounter, Putin was still far from comfortable. But there was an air of quiet determination and solidness that his Indian hosts perceived in their first major encounter with the Russian leader. Those in the know talked of his pragmatism and his insistence that the agenda for cooperation be worked out to the last detail. In short, he meant business. India too is aware that he is showing signs of consolidating his leadership and will possibly head Russia well into the 21st century. There is an air of realnosti too in the way the two sides are dealing with each other that augurs well for them. (Raj Chengappa
is Deputy Editor, INDIA TODAY and author of Weapons of Peace: The Secret
Story of India's Quest to be a Nuclear Power.) He is based in Delhi.
Write
to Raj Chengappa.)
|
|||||
| Top | ||||||
 BUSINESS TODAY
| INDIA TODAY
PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY Write to us | Subscriptions
| Advertise with us |
