NEW DELHI: Barely a week after the new External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral solemnly told senior officials “I have no favorites and no non favorites,” he has learned to be busy placing his friends and favorites in key positions. Heading the list is an old friend and senior journalist Kuldip Nayyar who has been approached to return to London as High Commissioner. Mr. Nayyar had held this post during the V.P. Singh years, but his tenure was aborted when the Janata Dal government fell.

The former Resident Editor of The Statesman and Indian Express has always nursed the hope of completing his “unfinished agenda’ in London. He also happens to be among Mr. Gujral’s associates in Delhi’s seminar circuit. However, it remains to be seen if the Congress Leaders ratify this proposal in view of his stridently anti Congress writings.

Mr. Gujral is also inducting his son’s brother in law Avinendra (Vinoo) Pandey as Private Secretary to the External Affairs Minister. This 1976 batch officer is being brought back from the US because of his proximity to the Gujral family. The third “favorite” being installed in South Block is Mr. Prabhat Shukla, who is being dispatched to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as the External Affairs ministry nominee. Mr. Shukla had served in the Indian Embassy in Moscow when Mr. Gujral was the Ambassador there during the Indira Gandhi years.

Sources in the External Affairs Ministry said that Mr. Gujral was actually quite keen to send the Indian Ambassador to Washington, Mr. Naresh Chandra, packing. A report to this effect had appeared in The Indian Express, but was subsequently denied by Mr. Gujral at his first press conference. However, Mr. Naresh Chandra has powerful backers and they intervened to prevent his recall, at least for the present. Significantly, Mr.V.P Singh “Dharmatma” (Godfather) to the United Front reacted strongly against the proposal and so, paradoxically, did Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao. The move was, therefore, abandoned with alacrity.

External Affairs Ministry officials say that while Mr. Gujral is well within his rights to elevate or appoint officers of his choice to key positions, and even nominate new envoys, he is doing things in quite a hurry. His assertion that he will not promote “favorites” now has a hollow ring because of the evident hiatus between precept and practice.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 26, 1996