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Time MEA is restored to its original purpose

THE induction of Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, a diplomat who thinks out of the box, into the Union Cabinet offers an opportunity to restore the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to the original purpose for which it was created in 1948.

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KP Nayar
Strategic Analyst

THE induction of Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, a diplomat who thinks out of the box, into the Union Cabinet offers an opportunity to restore the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to the original purpose for which it was created in 1948.

In the last two decades, slowly but steadily, consular activity — not diplomacy — has become  MEA's unique selling proposition or USP, causing increasing disquiet among professional diplomats and deep resentment in chanceries across the world which found it frustrating to engage South Block's political leadership in the conduct of foreign policy.

This process, which makes politicians popular, downgrades the purpose of having a dedicated ministry for foreign policy. Unfortunately, this process got formal sanction when a high-level committee headed by LM Singhvi, former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, was set up in 2000. 

According to the terms of reference of that committee, its mandate was to "to prepare a comprehensive report on the Indian diaspora, informing the Indian public of the achievements of the Indian diaspora, sensitising it to their problems and their expectations from their mother country, proposing a new policy framework for creating a more conducive environment in India to leverage these invaluable human resources and thus forging stronger ties between the Indian diaspora and India."

A proposal on these lines, which would have made the MEA a ministry of consular affairs, was originally mooted by then Indian Ambassador to the US, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, publicly in New York in 1995 when the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was feted at a reception by Indian-Americans. But Rao, with his long experience in foreign policy, rejected Ray's idea, which would have made the Ambassador very popular in the non-resident Indian (NRI) community worldwide. 

After the Singhvi committee report was accepted by the government, four service divisions were created in South Block, the MEA headquarters. It was handled by a small team led by an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, JC Sharma, then a secretary in the MEA, who was member-secretary of the Singhvi committee.

The Manmohan Singh government realised that diaspora affairs would be like the proverbial camel which was allowed into an Arab's tent and that overseas Indians-related activity would grow and grow, overwhelming the MEA and Indian missions abroad. So it decided as soon as it came to power in May 2004 to set up a separate ministry for non-resident Indian (NRI) affairs outside of MEA: the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA). Sharma was asked to oversee its creation, given his experience.

This helped to insulate the foreign ministry from the pressures of the NRI community even as the diaspora's role was becoming more visible and assertive in Indian affairs, especially India's external affairs. When the MOIA was merged with the MEA in January 2016, it was expected that the former ministry's four service divisions would work under the rubric of MEA's diplomatic priorities, much like in their nascent avatar in 2002. 

But that did not happen. As Rao and Singh feared, overseas Indian affairs have grown exponentially within the MEA since 2016, distracting under-secretaries and deputy secretaries at the headquarters, even joint secretaries often — not to speak of officers in many Indian missions abroad. Consular work, instead of diplomatic work, has become their priority. 

Diplomatic activity never stopped, however, especially with a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi who was hands-on in devising new and innovative foreign policy initiatives. But with an MEA which had changed course, this often required direct intervention either by the foreign secretary or by one of the three other secretaries who then took it upon themselves to carry out the Prime Minister's brief. 

As the new External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar will be concerned that India's case on the Balakot airstrike and its fallout got very little hearing in the international media, from Australia to America. Not even in the controlled media in dictatorships, which are otherwise friendly to India, did India get favourable coverage. Besides, Modi has been getting a very bad press in Europe and North America in the last two years at least.

The reason for this is that the character of the MEA's External Publicity Division has changed in the last two years. Decades of painstaking work by a galaxy of eminent spokespersons — from JN Dixit in the 1980s to Navtej Sarna in the new millennium — transformed India's external publicity machinery into a match for that of any advanced country. Alas, now all those efforts lie in smithereens.

The External Publicity (XP) Division's joint secretary — who is also the ministry's spokesman — has opted to be an event manager for the External Affairs Minister instead of a vigorous and untiring advocate for Indian foreign policy positions in the foreign media community in New Delhi. So much so, ministers of state and MEA secretaries have found it impossible to get their messages across through the XP Division. Foreign journalists rarely attend the spokesman's briefings these days, if at all they are held, even when important developments take place. This should be his first priority, as it has been for decades, ensuring the government fair — even if not necessarily favourable — global coverage.

Jaishankar will fit neatly into the modern community of foreign ministers from around the world. The character of this community has changed in the new millennium. A plain, matter-of-fact Sardar Swaran Singh was once a match for the inscrutable Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister or the dour Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the German Foreign Minister. 

Some years ago, when a previous Indian government was in office, I was at the United Nations General Assembly within earshot of the foreign ministers of India, Russia, China and Brazil, among others. They were all knowledgeably discussing cigars, cognac, wine and cheese. The Indian External Affairs Minister was the odd man out, ill at ease as he had nothing to contribute to their spirited conversation. 

Many global foreign ministers, notably the flashy Russian, Chinese and American, to mention a few, are now professionals like Jaishankar. The new Indian External Affairs Minister will neatly fit into their company with his chemistry and its attendant benefits for Indian diplomacy.

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