Critical mess

Former diplomat Hardeep Puri, who is now a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is unsparing of his former boss External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid. On Tuesday, Puri told a BJP "intellectual cell" gathering that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s foreign policy was a disaster. He cited examples of Khurshid's conduct during and after the Chinese intrusions in 2012-13 to illustrate the government's "hesitant, sterile, reticent, directionless, purposeless and confused" foreign policy. Puri recalled how the external affairs minister termed the intrusions "a pimple on an otherwise beautiful skin". Puri, permanent representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013, said the minister during a visit to Shanghai around this time was so impressed with the city that he wanted to settle down there. "That is the mindset of the UPA," said Puri, who was known to enjoy a good equation with Khurshid as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is now tipped to be a key advisor on foreign policy if a BJP-led coalition forms a government at the Centre.