Mineral security is no longer just an economic concern but a national security imperative, underpinning the country’s ambitions in clean energy, defence self-reliance, and advanced manufacturing.
Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.
India-Russia JV is also racing to deliver 7,000 more AK-203 assault rifles by 15 Aug. These are currently being made with 50% indigenisation and this will surge to 100% by 31 December.
Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.
S. RAGHOTHAM writes in response to ‘National Interest: Keeper of India’s Family Silver’ – By Shekhar Gupta, published on 14 July 2017
Shekhar Gupta, as usual, writes from his inside knowledge, but he gets a small detail wrong. Gurumurthy’s article could not have been in 1997, and if it was, it couldn’t have been in The New Indian Express (TNIE), because in 1997, Indian Express was still an undivided national paper with 21 editions. The split, of course, may have been in the works, but TNIE started to appear in mid- or late-1999. I myself left the undivided IE on April 28, 1999. So, Gurumurthy’s article must be later.
Also, while he largely gets Naresh Chandra right, I think the surmise about the Fox and the Mole playing subterfuge with the US on the 1995 N-test is a bit of a stretch. But, perhaps SG knows better. I did my own “investigation” into Jaswant Singh’s “mole” affair and came to a different conclusion about who it could have been. Here’s my 2006 piece: Jaswant’s mole story: connect the dots http://bit.ly/2tX1W0N (although I don’t reveal my mind there). SG asks if Jaswant Singh would have shared the stage with Naresh Chandra at a book launch if he had known or thought him to be the mole, but Jaswant Singh did more than that — Naresh Chandra was present in almost all of the Singh-Talbott meetings.
But ‘Keeper of India’s family silver’ is very apt for Naresh Chandra at another level, although I don’t know if SG meant it that way. What struck me when I visited NC’s otherwise modest house in Vasant Kunj was that everything in that place, except the man himself and the namkeens and chai he offered, was silver, mostly antique silver. Someone later told me that NC belonged to a family that had been in civil service not for one or two generations but almost in an unbroken line from the time of the Khilji dynasty – that’s about 1,000 years! I don’t know if that was true, but it all does add up – all that silver as well as the kind of trust NC commanded, as SG says, from nine PMs.
I have a different story to tell about Naresh Chandra, but I am still thinking whether I should or not. Because, as SG says, “He didn’t tell you all the facts”, but on one occasion, he did tell me enough (in just one line) about what was then still a sensitive subject.
SHEKHAR GUPTA responds:
We shared content with TNIE then but had no control over what it published. Guru article appeared before we had formally split
S. RAGHOTHAM:
Ok, I suppose we are both right then – it was Sonthalia-Gurumurthy IE that you didn’t control, but it still appeared as IE, not TNIE. Anyway, that was a minor point.
Very interesting story. Diplomacy works in mysterious ways and it was wonderful to read how India got the better of mighty spy agencies and scored a diplomatic victory. A handover from a congress government to a bjp government of time to prepare for pokharan 2. Kahaan gaye wo log? These days they don’t even wish each other if they cross paths.
S. RAGHOTHAM writes in response to ‘National Interest: Keeper of India’s Family Silver’ – By Shekhar Gupta, published on 14 July 2017
Shekhar Gupta, as usual, writes from his inside knowledge, but he gets a small detail wrong. Gurumurthy’s article could not have been in 1997, and if it was, it couldn’t have been in The New Indian Express (TNIE), because in 1997, Indian Express was still an undivided national paper with 21 editions. The split, of course, may have been in the works, but TNIE started to appear in mid- or late-1999. I myself left the undivided IE on April 28, 1999. So, Gurumurthy’s article must be later.
Also, while he largely gets Naresh Chandra right, I think the surmise about the Fox and the Mole playing subterfuge with the US on the 1995 N-test is a bit of a stretch. But, perhaps SG knows better. I did my own “investigation” into Jaswant Singh’s “mole” affair and came to a different conclusion about who it could have been. Here’s my 2006 piece: Jaswant’s mole story: connect the dots http://bit.ly/2tX1W0N (although I don’t reveal my mind there). SG asks if Jaswant Singh would have shared the stage with Naresh Chandra at a book launch if he had known or thought him to be the mole, but Jaswant Singh did more than that — Naresh Chandra was present in almost all of the Singh-Talbott meetings.
But ‘Keeper of India’s family silver’ is very apt for Naresh Chandra at another level, although I don’t know if SG meant it that way. What struck me when I visited NC’s otherwise modest house in Vasant Kunj was that everything in that place, except the man himself and the namkeens and chai he offered, was silver, mostly antique silver. Someone later told me that NC belonged to a family that had been in civil service not for one or two generations but almost in an unbroken line from the time of the Khilji dynasty – that’s about 1,000 years! I don’t know if that was true, but it all does add up – all that silver as well as the kind of trust NC commanded, as SG says, from nine PMs.
I have a different story to tell about Naresh Chandra, but I am still thinking whether I should or not. Because, as SG says, “He didn’t tell you all the facts”, but on one occasion, he did tell me enough (in just one line) about what was then still a sensitive subject.
SHEKHAR GUPTA responds:
We shared content with TNIE then but had no control over what it published. Guru article appeared before we had formally split
S. RAGHOTHAM:
Ok, I suppose we are both right then – it was Sonthalia-Gurumurthy IE that you didn’t control, but it still appeared as IE, not TNIE. Anyway, that was a minor point.
those ere the days of rao and abv true patriots. we are noe in sgs days
Very interesting story. Diplomacy works in mysterious ways and it was wonderful to read how India got the better of mighty spy agencies and scored a diplomatic victory. A handover from a congress government to a bjp government of time to prepare for pokharan 2. Kahaan gaye wo log? These days they don’t even wish each other if they cross paths.