India needs more leaders in office who can engage with the world

KC Singh’s book which confirms many political grapevine stories will mean the highest office of the land will be in the news for some time to come

With a new team in place for about nine months in Rashtrapati Bhavan and in the Vice President’s House on Maulana Azad Road in the national capital, detailed assessments are under way on how best to use the strengths of the two newcomers to constitutional offices and deal with their shortcomings. A lot of the focus is on the roles of President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar as flag-bearers of India’s external affairs.

Although India has had only two Presidents who have served as Ambassadors — S Radhakrishnan in Moscow, and KR Narayanan in multiple postings having been a career diplomat — many occupants of the highest constitutional office have unexpectedly proved to have diplomatic strengths born out of their long years as politicians. Without down-to-earth instincts to manoeuvre through the minefields of public life, they would not have been chosen by political parties to be candidates for occupying the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Ramnath Kovind, most of all in recent times, surprised the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) by turning out to be a great charmer in Africa, especially in the poorest and most neglected countries of the continent. Ten out of Kovind’s 35 presidential travels abroad during his five years in office have been to Africa. India opened 18 new embassies in Africa during these five years. Presidential visits were not central to MEA’s diplomatic outreach in Africa, but the visits did serve as catalysts.

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Murmu has made only one foreign trip abroad, but since it was a very high-profile trip — for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom — it has been possible for the MEA to size up her potential in the future. Dhankar has travelled abroad twice already: to Qatar, and to Cambodia.

Side-by-side with closed-door assessments in South Block — home to the PMO and the MEA — about the diplomatic strengths and weaknesses of Murmu and Dhankar, there will be much talk and writings in public forums in the coming weeks about the role of the President.

Such public discourse began a fortnight ago with the soft launch of a book, The Indian President – An Insider’s Account of the Zail Singh Years, by KC Singh, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, whom fate and unique qualifications, cast as Zail Singh’s trusted foreign policy aide between 1983 until 1987. The Delhi grapevine has overflowed with stories from time to time in the last three decades about how KC Singh paid a price for merely rendering honest advice to a Head of State, who unexpectedly became his own man and an independent.

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President although Prime Minister Indira Gandhi chose him for the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the expectation that he will also be like some of his predecessors amiable.

The book confirms these grapevine stories to have been true. Therefore, its formal launch on April 17 by a plain-speaking raconteur of political and diplomatic accounts of his time, former External Affairs and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, will mean the highest office of the land will be in the news for some time to come.

Indian diplomacy will come under increased pressure if the ongoing resource review of the highest constitutional offices concludes that one or both of those being reviewed cannot be spared for the State’s diplomatic outreach. India needs more leaders in office who can be used effectively for engaging the world.

China has four such and makes the most of them: the President, the Premier, the State Councillor, and the Foreign Minister. The United States of America too has its President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and an array of others with foreign policy experience in various agencies of the vast US administration.

Any discussion on India’s President’s role as a diplomat cannot be complete without a mention of Pranab Mukherjee, who brought to Rashtrapati Bhavan his rich experience as External Affairs Minister multiple times, in addition to having headed ministries such as Defence, Finance, and Commerce, all of which have external dimensions. Although Mukherjee is no more, India’s most successful neighbourhood policy — the good relations with Bangladesh — still bears Mukherjee’s stamp. Prominent Bangladeshis, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, still refer to this former President as the abhibhak (guardian) of Bangladesh. Mukherjee was the only Indian President to have been decorated with the Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona, which translates as the Liberation War Award, given to those who contributed to the creation of Bangladesh.

A President, it should never be forgotten, also has the potential to damage relations or sour incoming State visits. So, the office holder needs to be treated with kid gloves at all times.

(KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.