New Delhi
12 February 2006
Some former diplomats say although the United States ambassador
to India, Dr David C Mulford, deviated from established diplomatic procedure by writing
directly to a chief minister, such actions have over the years come to be recognised as
accepted practice.
Recently, Dr Mulford wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee for
his remarks against the American President. A few years ago, he wrote a letter to the
chief minister of Assam offering Federal Bureau of Investigation help investigation into
the blasts that claimed many lives.
Also, in an interview to Press Trust of India, the US ambassador last month said if India
did not vote against Iran's nuclear programme, the fallout on the India-US nuclear deal in
the American Congress would be "devastating" and the initiative would die. Political
parties termed those remarks as violation of diplomatic protocol.
A former diplomat, Prof Hamid Ansari, feels an envoy's communication to a state
government would not be something the Union government would necessarily frown on.
"Technically speaking, he is supposed to communicate with the central government but
in practice, [this] is accepted," he told this newspaper.
Prof Ansari is a distinguished fellow with the Observer Research Foundation in New
Delhi. He has served as India's ambassador to Iran, Saudi Arabia and also as India's
permanent representative to the United Nations. "[A] minor infringement of practice can
be accepted," he observes.
A former ambassador to Sweden, Mr BM Oza, says there are no "hard and fast rules"
that an ambassador cannot communicate with anybody other than the Union
Government; the yardstick, according to him, should be whether there was a malafide
intention and this cannot be a ground for recall.
"Strictly speaking, he (Mulford) is not exactly right," Mr Oza says, referring the Vienna
Convention of 1961 of which India and the US are signatories. He, however, disagrees
with the Left parties when they speak about the envoy's attitude or behaviour. "[Attempt]
must not be to make an issue of conduct," he adds.
On February 10, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said the party expected a
response from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "The US Ambassador does not seem to
understand how to behave as an ambassador in this country. An ambassador has to
behave according to certain norms," Mr Karat said.
In his letter, the US envoy objected to the chief minister's description of US President
George Bush as a leader of the "most organised pack of killers" at an election rally in
Kolkata on January 8. Dr Mulford also said such remarks would be detrimental,
especially in inviting US investors to West Bengal.
Mr Karat also said that the CPI(M) had earlier demanded Dr Mulford's recall following his
comment on the stand taken by the Left parties on foreign direct investment in retail
trade.
No comments:
Post a Comment