Few will dispute that PM Manmohan Singh’s US visit has been historically successful. It shows in the joint statement, besides which the US has accorded such lavish hospitality on a visiting Indian premier after a long time. A small but widely noticed gesture was the lining of the streets of Washington with Indian flags. Even the banquet hosted by President Bush in Singh’s honour is only the fifth of such scale ever hosted by him. Singh’s address to a joint session of houses of the US Congress was attended by the who’s who of the US political administration and the likes of Hillary Clinton were seen applauding at several instances. These hints are all pointing towards the fact US has finally recognised its natural ally in India, and is now willing to walk and talk with it.
There are other reasons to see how perceptions have changed and how the timing seems right this time. I have accompanied three prime ministers to Washington, but Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 was the only one to be given a grand reception of such magnificence. The hospitality was remarkably low-key during P.V. Narsimha Rao’s visit, for who President Bill Clinton had only 15 minutes to spare for their one-to-one in the Oval Room.
I noticed Clinton was simply unable to generate any interest in his talks with Rao and instead just went through the motions to meet the formalities of international diplomacy. Further embarrassment to the Indian contingent followed soon thereafter when at joint press conference, not one US journalist asked Clinton a single question about his discussions with India. It was all about Jacqueline Kennedy, who had unfortunately died the same day, or about the mounting crisis of South Korea’s nuclear missile programme. Rao’s address to the US Congress was attended by few Congressmen.
The hospitality grew only a little warmer during Vajpayee’s visit in 2000. Clinton had great respect for Vajpayee but still an ill-planned itinerary saw Vajpayee leaving the official banquet at 10 p.m., for he had to catch his flight back to India. Clinton soon retired to sleep and the VIP guests were left to linger in the White House lawns.
Because of an acute knee pain those days, Vajpayee was not in his element during his US Congress address. The US authorities too chose to goof it up this time and since they could not invite most Congressmen in time, Congress benches had to be filled with officers, research fellows and schoolchildren.
But still everything fades in comparison to the personal rapport Pandit Nehru and later Indira Gandhi shared with US Presidents.
In his US visit in 1960s, President Kennedy invited Pandit Nehru to fly to his farm house on his personal jet. Throughout the journey Pandit Nehru didn’t say a word to Kennedy; when Kennedy cracked a joke Nehru didn’t even respond. He was completely rapt in conversation with Mrs Kennedy, and it fell upon young Indira to ignore protocol and keep the US President in good humour.
Later when Indira Gandhi visited the US in 1966, the US President Lyndon Johnson went all the way to Indian Ambassador B.K. Nehru’s residence for a meeting with Indiraji. The incident is beautifully narrated in Katherine Frank’s biography of Indira, where she writes about how, that same evening, the Indian Ambassador had invited US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey for a banquet. However, the US President stayed on for so long drinking glass after glass of bourbon that ultimately Ambassador Nehru in consultation with US officials had to put protocol aside and in a small coup, the two topmost US leaders had a joint dinner at the Indian Ambassador’s residence with Indira Gandhi. Today, we cannot imagine the US President visiting our ambassador’s residence to meet the Indian PM. Indiraji’s indifferent relationship with President Nixon began the slide in Indo-US ties.
Watch your CMs
For the first time in our history, a state CM has projected himself as an icon bigger than Mahatma Gandhi. Almost three crore textbooks in Chhattisgarh have done away with the Mahatma’s picture, and instead carry the picture of CM Raman Singh.
I understand that the BJP high command is in disarray, or has gone into hibernation for the time being, but at least senior leaders must keep a tab on the adventures of errant CMs. Babulal Gaur who unabashedly made his own inexperienced and undeserving daughter-in-law chief of the MP Tourism Development Corporation. It was only after heavy criticism, not just in the media but also in the rank and file of the BJP state unit, that finally the daughter-in-law was hurriedly eased out.
Mining away our heritage
Playing into the hands of the mines mafia, the Vasundhara Raje government has given away rights to mine the rocks and hills of Braj near Mathura-Vrindavan, an area sacred to devotees of Lord Krishna. Half of the Braj hills area falls in Rajasthan, with the rest falling in UP. The Braj hills were the playground of Lord Krishna and local residents even claim sightings of the footmarks of Lord Krishna. Yet, the Raje government has paid no heed so far to a huge agitation currently underway by Krishna devotees. She has already given out contracts and is in no mood to oppose the mining mafia that will blow open the land surface and bulldoze a vital piece of our religious heritage. Braj Rakshak Dal is an organisation fighting the government decision.
The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha. Send him your feedback at shuklarajeev@gmail.com
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