T P Sreenivasan, (IFS 1967), is a former Ambassador of India and Governor for India of the IAEA.
Ambassador Sreenivasan is a frequent contributor to Rediff.com. You can e-mail the author at tpsreenivasan@gmail.com
President Obama had no intention of risking a global conflagration on account of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, especially at a time when he was struggling to wind up the wars his predecessor had started, says T P Sreenivasan
Unless our neighbours have a stake in our progress and success, they will challenge our role in various ways and power will become irrelevant, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'The subsequent generations of Indians abroad are free from such baggage of the past. They may be intolerant of the mosquitoes and the heat when they come to India, but they are proud of their heritage and the achievements of their parents abroad. India, to them, is a brand, which gives them added advantage in their highly competitive environment,' says T P Sreenivasan.
'I K Gujral's place in Indian history may not run into several pages. But he will always be remembered as a decent gentleman, generous and kind to a fault, who nursed a dream for a peaceful, prosperous India, in harmony with the world.' T P Sreenivasan pays tribute to his mentor.
Like it gave the prize to Barack Obama to make him fulfill the promise of change, the Nobel Committee has given it to the EU to remind it of its huge responsibility to maintain unity within the organisation, says T P Sreenivasan.
I decided to record the experience because the country concerned was Canada, a country that prides itself as a champion of human rights around the globe.... It appeared to me that the Canadian consulate in New York was trampling upon the human rights of nearly two hundred men and women, mostly Indians and Chinese, says T P Sreenivasan.
If only the Italians had accepted that it was a wrong judgement on the part of the crew of the ship, apologised and offered adequate compensation, the matter could have been resolved. But their whole approach has been defiant, says T P S Sreenivasan.
India's decision to fall back on an Islamic and authoritarian government to protect and promote its interests is a sad commentary on its neighbourhood policy, says T P Sreenivasan.
Ambassador A K Damodaran was the last link between the freedom struggle and Indian diplomacy, the last of those, who walked from a British prison to take on national responsibilities.
Her concern was the continuation of security breaches and terrorism and the apparent mood to move forward in normalising relations with Pakistan, without any guarantee that terrorism will not be its State policy anymore, says T P Sreenivasan.
A number of younger diplomats have begun to search for the soul of the foreign service, to give its members a sense of belonging and pride, observes former ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
By speaking for all nations without going into details, India expressed its confidence that it cannot be excluded if the Council is expanded. This was more effective than the usual assertion of the Indian claim on every occasion, says T P Sreenivasan.
M K Narayanan had nothing to gain by misrepresenting the Indian position to Timothy Roemer, while the latter had to impress upon his government that his demarche on the phone was very effective. Ambassadors are known to write their cables in a way that pleases their masters back home, says T P Sreenivasan.
'India seems to have been charmed into conceding ground to the new Pakistan foreign minister on many of its established positions. HRK has established her credentials and the US will be particularly impressed.'
India-US relations appear to be increasingly privatised, with little strategic content in it. The hopes raised during the Bush era and the momentum indicated during the Obama visit seem to fade away, at least for the time being.
The world will welcome the lofty ideas that have figured in Obama's Arab Spring speech, but the credibility deficit will remain till the US conduct on the ground matches the President's golden vocabulary, says TP Sreenivasan.
By a mix of deception, subterfuge, ingratitude and crocodile tears, Pakistan has begun to get sympathy rather than condemnation when it stands exposed as the haven for the most wanted terrorist in the world, says T P Sreenivasan.
'The US does not want Pakistan either to break up or fall into the hands of fundamentalists. The US has been saying for long that India should work with those in power in Pakistan, because those who came after them would have longer beards!'
'The IAEA should be given the authority, resources and technical capability to intervene expeditiously in case of a nuclear emergency.'
'Fukushima should inject a sense of nuclear neutrality into the thinking of our policy makers and it leads to a full appraisal of our options for the future,' says T P Sreenivasan.
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