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Delhi shrugs off Obama call that never came
WASHINGTON: In the short saga of the phone call which hasn't materialized so far, the mandarins are having a good laugh over pundits who have gotten their knickers in a twist.Turns out that the high priests of Indian diplomacy are not as perturbed as pundits in the media over America's president-elect Barack Obama not telephoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, although he has spoken to 15 other world leaders, including Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari, in the past two days. "We should be quite relieved that we are not in the same crisis league, right?" one official joked, expanding on the new diplomatic adage that "it is better to suffer from US inattention than US attention." The official, a key figure in the US-India loop, did not offer any explanation why Obama had not called Singh, but said New Delhi was happy it was placed in the same league as Beijing and Moscow, the other capitals Obama was yet to reach. In a more serious vein, another official explained that "mutually convenient times" could not be found for the call before Singh left for the Gulf region on Friday. The US President-elect phoned leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea on Thursday and followed it up with calls to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, and Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari on Friday as he began to connect with the world. Some pundits have interpreted Obama not calling Singh as an affront and an indication that India will not be a priority for the new Democratic dispensation, but Indian officials were not particularly agitated, saying the media was just "over-analyzing" the matter. "Of course we are not in the same league as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand and we are happy not to be," the first official told ToI. Obama's transition office did not respond to messages seeking details of the call schedule. Prime Minister Singh in the meantime has left New Delhi on a maiden three-day visit to the energy-rich Gulf region where he will be talking to leaders of Muscat, Oman and Qatar. Modern communication facilities do not preclude a Singh-Obama conversation on the go, but the Indian side is not holding its breath, although the second official expected it to take place soon. The Prime Minister is scheduled to be in Washington this coming weekend for the G-20 summit convened by President Bush, when there is a chance he will meet with Obama, since Bush has said the president-elect will be involved in the deliberations. It's another matter whether the President-elect would want to be involved in the meeting. Obama has also written a letter to Singh during the latter's visit here in September, contents of which are being parsed for signs of which way future US-India ties will go in a Democratic dispensation. But a former aide to Prime Minister Singh, who pointed out that Obama's first 100 days in office will coincide with the UPA government's last 100 days, surmises that ties between the two countries have reached a stage where change in governments will not make substantial difference. The two officials who spoke to ToI on background also said exchanges between the President-elect and the Prime Minister had been warm and friendly and New Delhi did not particularly anticipate any backslide in the excellent relations it has enjoyed with Washington in recent years. The Prime Minister even wrote a personal letter to Obama with condolences on his grandmother's death earlier in the week. Posted by: john frum 2008-11-08 |
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