New Delhi: The ballroom of The Lalit, New Delhi, was packed with members from the Indian Foreign Service, writers, journalists and others from different walks of life, all with two things in common — a vast interest in India-Pakistan relations and immense respect for a man who is credited with having shaped the relationship between the two countries, former ambassador Satinder Kumar Lambah, who passed away in June last year.
His memoir, In Pursuit of Peace: India-Pakistan Relations Under Six Prime Ministers, was released by his wife, Nina Lambah Wednesday.
Present at the event were four former High Commissioners to Pakistan, family and friends.
In her opening address Wednesday, Nina recalled that her late husband only began to pen down his memoir towards the end of 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, owing to her insistence.
Published by Penguin Random House India, the book was released by Shivshankar Menon, former national security advisor of India, Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, who served as former high commissioner to Pakistan between 1998 and 2000, Sharat Sabharwal, Indian ambassador to Pakistan between 2009 and 2013 and T.C.A. Raghavan, former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan between 2013 and 2015.
While Lambah is best remembered for his work in Pakistan, his wife noted that he had begun his career in Moscow in the 1960s.
Popularly known as ‘Sati’ within diplomatic circles, the author joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1964, serving across numerous missions worldwide. Over the years, he is credited for having helped shape relations between India and many of its neighbours and other foreign countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Russia, among others.
Working under six different Prime Ministers — from Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh — his storied career highlighted Lambah’s ability to work with leaders from across the political spectrum.
However, what distinguished Lambah’s approach towards Indian foreign policy and diplomacy, from his peers was his “empiricism”, said T.C.A. Raghavan, while calling Lambah “his mentor and someone many relied on for guidance”.
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‘Undying faith in dialogue, diplomacy’
Lambah’s memoir explores the intricate relationship between India and its most exacting neighbour, Pakistan. Through the book, Lambah takes readers on an insider’s journey across his four-decade-long diplomatic career and post-retirement in 2001, working as India’s special envoy to Pakistan under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, between 2005 and 2014.
Lambah was a key negotiator in the backchannel diplomatic process between India and Pakistan during this period, when bilateral relations thawed, the book mentions.
Through the book, he also introduces a fascinating 14-point solution to the Kashmir issue, including mutual respect of the Line of Control (LoC) between the two countries, meaningful trade flow, end of hostilities and terrorism, among others.
One thing that every speaker at the book launch recalled was Lambah’s undying faith in dialogue and diplomacy.
“He worked tirelessly throughout his career for peace in Pakistan, but was also a realist. He was a tough negotiator but also knew the art of compromise”, reminisced Sharat Sabharwal.
Some of Lambah’s noteworthy achievements, according to the book, include helping set up the new Indian mission in Dhaka after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, re-establishing India’s diplomatic ties with Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001 and helping create the strategic partnership agreement with Russia in 2000 as ambassador in Moscow. He served as special envoy to Afghanistan under the Vajpayee government and later became PM Singh’s go-to-guy for back-channel talks with Pakistan.
While Shivshankar Menon called Lambah’s memoir a “remarkable” book that only “the ideal diplomat, Sati’ could write”, he received a round of applause from the audience for noting that the book was not just the efforts of “Sati but Sati-Nina”.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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