The success of President Barack Obama’s visit may have
sealed ambassador S Jaishankar’s move to Delhi as the next foreign secretary,
but the die was cast last September. And in more ways than one.
For one, he was largely, and directly, credited for Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s four-day US trip — a rockstar stay in New York, and
friendship with Obama in DC.
And, two, he would benefit indirectly from a perceived
failure of others in charge of the messaging around the trip. It made him look
best suited for the job of Modi’s top diplomat.
“The messaging was somewhat flawed,” said a source, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. “It fell flat on many, and crucial,
occasions.” And that irked the Prime Minister.
The most glaring of them was the news briefing following the
all-important summit-level meet between at the White House — the briefers came
up awfully short.
There was no mention of the South China Sea para in the
joint statement, for instance, as briefers peddled crowd-pleasing lines on
Pakistan-terrorist havens and others.
That India and US had sought peaceful resolution of South
China Sea disputes, which would dominate the narrative about the talks in
coming days, was completely omitted. And that was not for lack of interest from
reporters.
Take a look at this excerpt from the transcript of the
briefing from the archives of the ministry of external affairs.
Q: “Could you
tell us a little about the defence framework agreement; how forward-looking it
is; and what are the new things that are likely to be there; and if there was
any discussion on China?”
Official spokesperson:
“You choose the first question and answer it.”
Joint secretary (Americas): “Since
the defence framework agreement is under negotiation I cannot give you the
details. But there is a commitment to extend it for another ten years and at
least building upon that existing framework, going beyond.”
That’s it. Nothing more was heard on China after that. China
wa s big deal then, even if it figured as a paragraph, growing into a separate,
stand-alone communiqué in Obama’s India visit
The delegation was by then aware of the messaging problem
and, to their credit, had attempted to fix it by deploying heavy-hitters such
as Jaishankar, then Indian ambassador to US.
But the prime minister was also keen to have the ambassador
by his side for the rest for the following fixtures, which included a formal
lunch hosted by vice-president Joe Biden.
So joint secretary Americas Vikram Doraiswami was deputed to
help with the briefing. But he read out the joint statement as a laundry list
of everything discussed and agreed to.
“They should've identified the high points and hit them
early and emphatically which should have included South China Sea and
Pakistan-based terrorism,” said a source.
This time around, for Obama’s visit, Indians were prepared,
and fielded Jaishankar and disarmament joint secretary Amandeep Singh Gill,
with the foreign secretary and others.
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