Botched Affairs Abroad:

October 14/2015 : India’s relations with Israel have taken a blow. This happened when Israel refused to allow the entry of communication equipment, which President Pranab Mukherjee was carrying with him to gift to a Palestinian university. Israel is a nation that has survived by the dint of its guts and ability to ward off constant violence from surrounding Moslem nations. Obviously aware of this historical fact and yet ignoring it has lead to misunderstandings being created between the two nations.

Israeli sources have said the communication equipment, which was to come through that country and was to be gifted to the India-Palestine Centre for Excellence in Information and Communication Technology at the Al-Quds University in Ramallah, cannot be allowed to enter as it is against the law of that country. It has, however, permitted the computers to be brought in.

This is not the first time that a controversy has been created because of the way our leaders have behaved. Let us take the example of Pranab Mukherjee visiting Israel and carrying attractive gifts for its arch enemy, the Palestinians. Say for instance, you are visiting a friend. You are, however, aware that this friend to be visited does not see eye to eye with another colleague of yours living in the same city. It would be highly unsocial and inappropriate to take a huge packet meant for the colleague which you will try to keep in your friend’s home. The heartburn and irritation of the friend should be very easily understood by you. Enlarge this scenario and make the friend Israel and the colleague Palestine. These two entities do not have a simple love-hate relationship. They are probably the bitterest of enemies that can be seen anywhere on the globe today. The Palestinians do not hesitate to brutally slaughter Israeli children and women when given an opportunity. Israel too, militarily does the same. In such a vicious war situation, it is only a nation like India and a President like Pranab Mukherjee who could commit such a terrible faux pas.

This national mistake is an example of a continuous thread of wrong doings by the diplomatic corps of India. It is a known fact that we have, as a nation, surrendered our foreign policy-making and its execution solely on the not-so-able shoulders of our Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers. Indian officers’ abilities and sincerity of purpose is not unknown to anyone. When we dump the responsibility of building delicate diplomatic bridges in the hands of these inept and disinterested bureaucrats, we mostly end up with our leaders’ and the nation’s image tarnished. Otherwise, why on earth would the President of India, presently on a three day visit to Israel, even dream of visiting the Palestinian university at Ramallah. Whether it is Kalam being strip searched in the US, an Indian woman consul being asked to take off her sari during an internal visit within the US or, worst of all, Devyani Khobragade getting all her orifices checked by the police in New York, these are obviously mismanagements by the Indian diplomatic establishment. On a more personal note, Kalam travelling to the US as an ex President of a third world country and on a private visit, getting searched was no big deal. While our media complains about VIP high handedness within the country, we are unwilling to accept that other countries do not offer undue favours to their own important people. In most other countries, the façade is maintained that every citizen is treated equal.

All these incidents highlight the ineffectiveness of our foreign service in predicting and avoiding embarrassing situations for our dignitaries and thus for the country as a whole. It is time the political leadership should consider a change in the system of handling our foreign affairs.