Zebra
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2011
- Messages
- 6,060
- Likes
- 2,303
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/finding-the-centre/article8760866.ece
Finding the centre
Suhasini Haidar , June 23, 2016
While non-alignment has yet to find space in the PM’s speeches, it may still be a necessity in his actions
A few days after India and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in August 1971, Foreign Minister Swaran Singh flew to Washington to an icy reception. In his recently released memoirs, A Life in Diplomacy, former Foreign Secretary M.K. Rasgotra has a full account of Swaran Singh’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Will Rogers, where he wasn’t even offered a cup of tea. Instead, the host railed on about the how the treaty made India’s policy of non-alignment look like a “sham”. Unruffled, the minister replied that he didn’t see any need for the U.S. to be upset. In fact, he said, “My Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) has authorised me to sign an identical treaty with your government.”
The idea may have seemed laughable, and certainly the U.S. didn’t accept the offer, but the anecdote has remarkable similarities to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own task this month, in reverse order. Fresh from his visit to Washington, where the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) on defence has been finalised, and India declared the U.S.’s major defence partner, Mr. Modi must fly to Tashkent to finalise documents for India’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a “political, economic and military alliance” spearheaded by Russia and China. While non-alignment, a term that now invites raised eyebrows and some mirth in South Block, has yet to find a mention in the Prime Minister’s speeches, it may still be a necessity in his actions, especially with India’s desired Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership hanging in the balance.............
Finding the centre
Suhasini Haidar , June 23, 2016
While non-alignment has yet to find space in the PM’s speeches, it may still be a necessity in his actions
A few days after India and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in August 1971, Foreign Minister Swaran Singh flew to Washington to an icy reception. In his recently released memoirs, A Life in Diplomacy, former Foreign Secretary M.K. Rasgotra has a full account of Swaran Singh’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Will Rogers, where he wasn’t even offered a cup of tea. Instead, the host railed on about the how the treaty made India’s policy of non-alignment look like a “sham”. Unruffled, the minister replied that he didn’t see any need for the U.S. to be upset. In fact, he said, “My Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) has authorised me to sign an identical treaty with your government.”
The idea may have seemed laughable, and certainly the U.S. didn’t accept the offer, but the anecdote has remarkable similarities to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own task this month, in reverse order. Fresh from his visit to Washington, where the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) on defence has been finalised, and India declared the U.S.’s major defence partner, Mr. Modi must fly to Tashkent to finalise documents for India’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a “political, economic and military alliance” spearheaded by Russia and China. While non-alignment, a term that now invites raised eyebrows and some mirth in South Block, has yet to find a mention in the Prime Minister’s speeches, it may still be a necessity in his actions, especially with India’s desired Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership hanging in the balance.............
