Image via Indiatoday.com
A long time ago, Dr Manmohan Singh served his country admirably with his legendary skills of economic administration. He could once again be doing so, this time on the diplomatic front, by leveraging his just as legendary skills of silence. The Modi government, which has been struggling to articulate the official Indian position on the latest round of violence in Gaza in a manner that doesn’t affect India’s ties either with the Zionist regime or the Arab nations, feels only Dr Manmohan Singh can perform the delicate balancing act. So he has been sounded out to be India’s UN representative.
“Look, we simply cannot afford to piss off either the Israelis or the Arabs in the slightest manner,” a top official of the Ministry of External Affairs told The UnReal Times. “The former supplies us our shells to fire our Bofors guns. The latter supplies 70% of our oil needs which fires just about everything else. So under the circumstances, Manmohanesque silence is our best strategy.”
There was some debate in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about issuing a bland statement along the lines of “India is concerned about the ongoing conflict and is in favour of both sides stepping back”. But after much to and fro, MEA babus felt even that might be too controversial and end up rubbing both the Israelis and the Palestinians the wrong way. Finally, the MEA decided to leave it to Dr Manmohan Singh to formulate India’s response, if and when he becomes India’s UN representative.
Foreign policy experts feel Dr Manmohan Singh will also be well equipped to handle the Pakistan ambassador’s diatribes on Kashmir. “After honing his skills in Parliament, he is second to none at turning a deaf ear to vituperative tirades. The Pakistani ambassador will soon realize the futility of trying to get a response out of Dr Singh. This in turn will enable India to not get drawn into these cockfights over Kashmir and play a more mature, albeit silent, role on the world stage,” famous strategic affairs expert, Brahma Chellaney, opined.
Dr Manmohan Singh has not yet given his nod but mandarins in the MEA say it’s only a matter of time before he says, “theek hai”. Rumour mills also quoted the former PM as saying, “Modi has learned the tricks of the trade very well. The way he’s functioning so far reminds me a lot of my tenure and I’m fully confident he can manage this situation too, on his own, with a delightfully dignified silence.”