The Hindu Business Line : Prime Minister's foreign odyssey — Skilled navigation conquers minds and hearts

HE WENT. He saw. If to say he conquered will be a bit high-blown, certainly he seems to have vibed well with all those he met. He also came through as one who had done his homework well and sown high-yielding seeds for reaping a good diplomatic and economic harvest. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, must have left an agreeable impression on the shrewd and sharp political leaders, business tycoons, media moguls by just being himself — a soft-spoken, low-key persona endowed with manifest sincerity and professional grasp and lucid articulation of the issues. He must have also excited not a little curiosity (but to his advantage) amongst his hosts on a variety of counts.

First, he is symbolic of an India that has a Muslim as the President, and a Sikh as the Prime Minister, which is more than what can be said of the status of minorities in many other countries. Second, in a world not exactly crowded with experts and technocrats donning a political mantle and making it to the topmost slot, this erudite economist, managing the world's teemingly populous and complicated polity making good within a well-established and credible democratic framework, is unlike anyone else in power any where. Next, there are few countries posing problems and challenges equal in bewildering complexity to those he faces. He is trying valiantly to get the best out of what, to foreign eyes, must seem, with all the raging controversies over foreign direct investment, the future of economic reforms, tainted ministers, multiple power centres, and foreign consultants, a crazy quilt coalition liable to fall apart any moment.

No mean feat

From this distance, and not being fully au fait with body language and other clues, it is hard to tell to what extent this possibly unenthusing perception of his listeners would have the unwanted side-effect of detracting from the force and weight of his fervent call for increased investment and his no doubt genuinely meant assurances of the Government's earnestness in creating a conducive climate for implementation of policies attuned to globalisation by a responsive and fast-acting bureaucracy.

Even so, to all appearances, Dr Singh has succeeded in projecting a forward-looking image of India in the spirit of the phrase he has become fond of using in every context: The best is yet to come. This is no mean feat in view of the objectives of the odyssey which, inevitably, were demanding as well as daunting.

Leading all the rest of the tasks on his plate was, of course, to present the new face of the Government and show the country's flag. In the countries he visited, and more particularly in the UK and the US, he made India a living presence, noticed more extensively in the influential sections of the media than during the past trips of his predecessors. This is because of the imagination and effort that had gone into his itinerary, in the making of which he himself, being world-savvy, took a hand.

He also addressed with aplomb and panache what he must have previously chalked out as his other priorities. Making the West give up its ambivalence on terrorism, except where its own security was involved, clearly occupied the top of the heap. In this he scored conspicuous success. He extracted from the British Prime Minister and the American President — no doubt to the chagrin of Pakistan — a welcome and unequivocal acknowledgment of the imperative duty and obligation of every country not to give any quarter to terrorism "of any kind, anywhere".

The Declaration jointly signed by Dr Singh and his British counterpart, Mr Tony Blair, vowed to combat terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations" and to work together in ensuring the adherence by all countries to the universally accepted code of conduct against it. Similarly, Dr Singh's breakfast meeting with Mr Bush also elicited "an understanding and appreciation" of India's stand that cross-border terrorism was vitiating the progress of the dialogue with Pakistan. It is not possible in diplomatic parlance to convey a clearer warning to Pakistan not to meddle with the mandatory global measures by conniving at, if not encouraging, terrorist outfits from its soil to perpetrate their diabolical acts of terror against India.

Strong, categorical assertion

Besides the above, in his exchanges of views with the two leaders and with representative gatherings of the top economic players and editors of financial media, Dr Singh was clearly pursuing a twin-objective: One, refurbishing the relationship with the US and the UK, whose goodwill and support largely decide the attitude the developed world takes towards a particular country.

Their endorsement of India's approach to reforms of the UN, in general, and its entitlement to a permanent seat on the Security Council, in particular, was crucial. On all accounts, he seemed to have hit it off with Mr Blair, and earned his respect. With the result, Mr Blair exulted over the "strongest ever" ties between the two countries and promised to fight for India's claims for a seat on the Security Council as a permanent member.

It was significant that Mr Bush, during his conversations with Dr Singh, had Mr Robert Blackwill, former Ambassador of India, by his side and seemed to set much store by his advice. Mr Blackwill is an ardent friend of India who never leaves any one in any doubt about the "glittering future" of the India-US relationship.

He played a big role in the lifting of sanctions after the 1998 Indian nuclear tests, organised the visits by over 100 Bush administration functionaries to New Delhi and prepared the ground for joint operations by American and Indian Defence forces.

He is also remembered for the strongest and the most categorical assertion by any high-level American official that "there can be no other legitimate stance by the United States, no American compromise whatever on this elemental geopolitical and moral truth that the fight against international terrorism could not be won until terrorism against India ended completely". His presence augurs well for the success of the "Next Steps in Strategic Partnership" between India and the US if Mr Bush is re-elected President.

In all these respects, however, Dr Manmohan Singh had to be on guard against fuelling the suspicion of the Left by looking like placating the Western, and pointedly the American, political establishment or pandering to its interests.

Actually, from the standpoint of Left-leaning critics, his speech to the captains of finance and industry assembled at the New York Stock Exchange must have sounded a little too cloying in the way he repeatedly importuned them to come to India's help in solving its economic problems.

Already, some of the old-style Congress satraps in Delhi seem to have given expression to their unhappiness at his style of hard-sell and at his indication of the lengths to which he was prepared to go to make India attractive to investors.

The more delicate and difficult part of his mission was to carefully nuance and calibrate his diplomatic offensive so that while, on the one hand, he maintained a semblance of independence of judgment and action, on the other, he did not strike the Americans as being standoffish compared to his predecessor, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and his Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, who had shown themselves skilled at keeping both the Clinton and Bush Administrations in good humour.

Given the weakness of the Americans for effusive fawning, it should not be surprising if Mr Bush missed in Dr Singh's cordial but correct dealings the glow and warmth of Mr Vajpayee's evocative description of India and the US as "natural allies".

Trumping it all was Dr Singh's breaking the ice with the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf. Considering the many things that could have gone wrong, and the danger of a single misstep blasting all chances of reconciliation, the encounter was nothing short of a triumph for both sides, which showed the utmost sensitivity and finesse. The gesture of Gen Musharraf in presenting Dr Singh with a painting of his old school and a copy of his mark-sheet was a masterstroke of imaginative genius. The instant personal rapport that both Dr Singh and Gen Musharraf have, thus, built up can now hopefully help resolve the contentious issues in a spirit of goodwill and accommodation.

What will count is their ability to channel public opinion in favour of whatever solution they both deem to be right and reasonable by exercising courageous leadership and, to quote Dr Singh's own words, by thinking outside the box.

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