Uncertain Convictions - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality - page 286

to negotiations on a possible settlement of a disputed part of Pakistan at Sir Creek on the
Gujarat-Sindh maritime border. 26
Banerjee's opposition seems to have stemmed at least partly from pique that she was not
consulted. Sumantra Bose, a political scientist who knows her, says he believes that her
opposition was 'due as much to her resentment of the Congress-ruled Centre's failure to
adequately involve her state government in the process as it is to her substantive concerns
that the treaty could prove to be detrimental to West Bengal's interests'. 27
This opens up the question of what rights a state has to influence and dictate national for-
eign policy in federal India. 28 It also points to the need for the central government actively
to recognize and involve the states when new policies and treaties are being developed.
That was done in 1995 by I.K. Gujral, when he was foreign minister (H.D. Deve Gowda
was prime minister). Gujral encouraged Bangladesh's Awami League government to liaise
with Jyoti Basu, the communist leader of West Bengal's government, on negotiations over
a barrage at Farakka on the River Ganga. 29

His sort of pragmatic statesmanship was not

displayed by Manmohan Singh.

Inadequacies

Many senior officials are severely critical - sometimes publicly after retirement and con-
fidentially before that. One of the most outspoken is K. Shankar Bajpai. 'Our apparatus for
interacting with the world is inadequate, in concepts and in mechanics,' 30 he wrote shortly
after Obama's address to the Indian parliament in November 2010. 31 Obama had listed is-
sues that he must have known India would not find easy to accept. He specifically men-
tioned the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that India has always refused to sign, and chal-
lenged India to forsake its friendship with Iran - which it would not do for historic and
oil-supply reasons - and condemn the military regime in its neighbouring country of My-
anmar, which it was rightly loath to do because of China's growing role in that country.
Bajpai said that Obama's message was 'welcome to the high table, now show us what
you can bring to it'. India's problem however was an inability, indeed refusal, to pro-
ject its views persuasively. 'Issuing statements, or rushing around canvassing at the last
minute, cannot substitute for timely, sustained advocacy,' wrote Bajpai. 'Our missions
abroad mostly glean our stand from the press. briefings, if given, are like the banalities
we get away with at home, ineffectual with hard-headed foreign offices or media analysts.
Our domestic vices spoil our international image. Others treat you as they estimate you: a
strong, well-organised state, seen as knowing what it is doing and able to do it efficiently,
inspires respect, circumspection, even cooperativeness — an invaluable shield against mis-
chief. The shorter we fall of such stature, the greater our vulnerabilities.'