The Rediff Special

What did they expect me to do? Go after all the countries in the world with a stick and make them vote for us?'

The P V Narasimha Rao government was lambasted by the CPI-M for giving in on the issue of membership of the World Trade Organisation.

But it is unable to defend a government it supports on the reverses in the UN Security Council.

Foreign Minister I K Gujral says he never promised anyone that India would win. But the question everyone is asking is: How did India lose so badly? Didn't the ministry of external affairs anticipate this?

Jagannath Mishra, the master-fighter of elections, says: ''In any election, humiliating defeat to nahin invite karna chahiye. Itna wrong assessment kaise ho gaya?''

Things are not so good in the MEA. The Security Council defeat was bad enough. But the attack on an Indian diplomat and his wife in Pakistan went almost uncommented by the MEA. Officers are unhappy that insults and abuse of a colleague was excused because of a minister's personal agenda.

There is no doubt that the tone of dialogue between India and Pakistan has changed after the United Front government took over. But surely some things are sacrosanct?

A senior official of the foreign ministry pointed this out. When Ashok and Renu Wahi, the assaulted official and his wife, reached Delhi they got sympathy but not much more. The ministry of external affairs put out a mealy-mouthed protest. The Pakistan high commissioner, Riaz Khokhar, was summoned to South Block for a reprimand. The reprimand was couched in traditional terms.

But the incident was far more serious. While Indian officers who are suspect in Pakistani eyes have been pulled up in the past, this is the first time the wife of an officer has been assaulted and stabbed. The reprimand to Khokhar was sharpened by the bureaucracy and the point emphasised that Mrs Wahi was assaulted and stabbed only because she happened to be the wife of an Indian officer.

MEA officers say that though Khokhar could talk back on all the charges India laid at Pakistan's door, the allegation of being unchivalrous and ungentlemanly was something he could not refute.

But those who were responsible for pulling him up say that this was beyond their brief - they were asked merely to scare him, not actually pull him up.

The external affairs minister is unhappy at all this. He sees no reason to apologise for his efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan. But he has also told reporters that if the Security Council matter is raised in Parliament and his government does not stand up for him, he will quit. 'What did they expect me to do? Go after all the countries in the world with a stick and make them vote for us?' he told a friend recently.

Courtesy: Sunday magazine