Foreign minister’s mis-steps

In any case, Swaraj didn’t choose any of the acceptable options. What she did instead was not just highly improper, but shocking beyond words. Here was the foreign minister of India making what amounted to a purely personal phone call to the British high commissioner, who was on leave, requesting him to give travel documents to Lalit Modi. While doing so, she also took upon herself the responsibility of changing existing policy. The last communication to the British chancellor of the exchequer by P. Chidambaram, finance minister in UPA 2, had clearly stated that the grant of travel

papers to LaMo would “affect Britain’s relations with India”. Swaraj verbally assured the high commissioner that nothing of this kind would happen!

I have pounded the corridors of our foreign office since the early 1950s. I can vouch for the fact that no other foreign minister has behaved even remotely the way Swaraj has done. During the mid-1960s, when the US relaxed its strict visa policy and there was a deluge of Indian applications for an American visa, the government realised some applications would need official backing. Indira Gandhi issued strict instructions that “nobody above the rank of undersecretary” should speak to the US embassy about visas. Whatever mistakes Gandhi made later, she saw to it that the country’s honour was not compromised. Swaraj’s phone call to the British diplomat has demeaned not only her but also the entire country.

A diligent TV anchor has been arguing, plausibly enough, that Swaraj’s action even attracts Section 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. But, despite veteran L.K. Advani’s sage advice, she has shown no sign of wanting to offer her resignation. Who can say what PM Modi would do — brazenly protect her or drop her under public pressure, when it is too late. His mystifying silence is more thundering than his all-too-frequent speeches confined to subjects he likes. Sometimes one sympathises with the BJP spokespersons, each of whom has to declare at least a hundred times a day: “PM does not have to speak on every subject.” Pray, on which of the highly polarising statements of the Hindutva hotheads among his followers and even colleagues has he spoken?

There is another powerful woman in the BJP, the chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, also in the eye of storm.

But given my chosen theme, the less said about Raje the better.

The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator