Krishna's 'achievements' stand out in MEA booklet

The 37-page booklet, titled “The Ministry of External Affairs: Achievements 2010-11”, gives a glimpse of India’s foreign policy initiatives at various levels and at different fora.

Its contents include chapters on a year of achievement; neighbourhood; strengthening regional co-operation; constructive engagement on global issues; passport services; public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy; development partnership and Haj pilgrimage and Kailash Manasarovar yatra.

Sources close to S M Krishna dismissed talks of his imminent departure from the MEA, pointing that a rival minister setting his eyes on the foreign office as the source of such speculations. They assert that prime minister Manmohan Singh has recently approved several foreign visits by Krishna to take forward Indian’s foreign policy initiatives.

Krishna, who is set to host his Pakistani counterpart in July, is scheduled to visit Bangladesh and Indonesia shortly. Interestingly, the visit to Bangladesh [July 6-8] comes around the time when the much-expected cabinet reshuffle is expected to happen.

This is the second time that the former chief minister’s name has figured prominently in the restructuring of the cabinet. The first was in January when the PM caused a damp squib after what was expected to be a major surgery to the scam-hit government : Singh ended up shuffling a couple of ministries and brining in another 2-3 low-profile politicians as ministers. For the record, Krishna visited as many as 26 countries in the last one year starting June 25, 2010.