Power and diplomacy: An insider's eye view

Centres of Power: My Years in the Prime Minister’s Office and Security Council  

Author: Chinmaya R Gharekhan

Publisher: Rupa

Pages: 336 

Price: Rs 795

Ambassador C R Gharekhan enjoys a well-earned reputation for his diplomatic artistry and for his musical artistry. He has been as much at home conducting arcane diplomatic negotiations as in hitting the high notes in vocal Hindustani classical music. His latest book, Centres of Power is written in two parts, the first covering his years of service in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the second containing a most absorbing and illuminating account of the diplomacy during the first Gulf War. We are given an inside look at happenings at the domestic centre of power followed by service at the UN Security Council (UNSC), which may be considered the international centre of power.

The first part contains engaging, sometimes humorous, pen portraits of two temperamentally different prime ministers — Indira Gandhi, and her son Rajiv Gandhi, whose familial relationship did not translate into ideological affinity. This section of the book is full of anecdotes through which Ambassador Gharekhan gives the reader a rare insight on how personality and issues constantly interact and determine policy directions. Occasionally, the outcomes appear whimsical; sometimes they are inspirational. The book has a good account of the 8th Non-Aligned Summit in Delhi, at which Indira Gandhi took over as chairman. She played a hands-on role managing the inflated egos and quaint eccentricities of her assembled guests. She took as much interest in the dinner menu and seating plans as in the drafting of outcome documents. I had a peripheral view of activities at the summit as a delegate to the political committee. It was interesting to see the same events unfolding from the centre in Ambassador Gharekhan’s narrative.

The book has candid pen portraits of several of his colleagues in the PMO and in his own parent Ministry of External Affairs. He is unsparing in exposing their prejudices, their personal foibles and all too human failings. But he also gives credit where it is due, though these instances are fewer in the telling. The dramatis personae figuring in the story include G Parthasarathy, chairman of the Policy Planning Committee; P C Alexander, Indira Gandhi’s principal secretary; foreign secretaries Ram Sathe and Maharaj Krishna Rasgotra, and former secretary and later external affairs minister, K Natwar Singh. Their personality traits as depicted are not always flattering. This did not prevent Messrs Rasgotra and Natwar Singh from speaking at the recent ceremony to launch the book.

Ambassador Gharekhan’s account of the two years he spent in Rajiv Gandhi’s PMO is sympathetic to the young successor to Mrs Gandhi. In the initial years, Rajiv Gandhi showed considerable promise — bold enough to take risks to resolve difficult political challenges, such as the resumption of a political process in Punjab. He put India on the road to technological modernisation and was ready to reach out to the US and the West to advance this initiative. The chapter, “Rajiv Gandhi: The Modern Prime Minister”, is an excellent account of how Rajiv Gandhi oriented the country in the direction of modernity.

Part-II of the book has a very different flavour. It is a case study which could serve as a separate book. It is a must read for anyone interested in the events leading up to Iraq’s ill-conceived invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Gulf war orchestrated by the US to force its erstwhile partner in West Asia to disgorge its oil-rich prey. We get a rare account of the political shenanigans playing out at the UNSC and how it was systematically marginalised and prevented from playing any role in seeking a peaceful denouement to the crisis. The author had a vantage point from which the unfolding train of events could be witnessed and interpreted, enabling India to adopt the right policies. And yet an exaggerated fear of the welfare of Indians serving in Iraq and a sentimental affinity for Saddam Hussein, a cold and calculating dictator who once had taken a pro-Indian stance on Kashmir, obscured what India’s real interests demanded.

In Part-II, one gets a pen portrait of the author himself as a seasoned multilateralist adept at networking, leveraging personal relationships cultivated with friend and adversary alike, and always low key and modest in dealing with his counterparts. He was alert in finding spaces in which India’s role and interests could be advanced. He was firm in defending Indian interests and could even be obstinate on occasion. But his diplomatic skills in the Security Council were often deployed in searching for points of consensus, of compromise and mutual accommodation. He was less than successful in promoting the role of the UNSC in dealing with the Gulf crisis mainly because the interests of the five permanent members were not aligned. But as he rightly points out, the UNSC’s inability to discharge its mandate “also rests, at least partly, with the 10 non-permanent members. Collectively they constitute a veto if they join hands in opposing a particular initiative of one or two permanent members.” But this never happens because they too vote in their country’s narrowly conceived interests rather than to uphold principle.

This is a most readable book by a discerning eyewitness but also a key participant at “centres of power”. It is a story told with honesty and a quiet sense of humour. It should command a wide readership.

The reviewer is a former foreign secretary, and an honorary fellow, CPR