Ministry of external affairs fumes as home secretary queers pitch before visit

The timing of home secretary GK Pillai’s fulmination against United States authorities over Lashkar-e-Taiba activist David Coleman Headley has left the ministry of external affairs (MEA) fuming.

Top officials in the MEA feel Pillai is raking up uncomfortable issues deliberately to queer the pitch before US president Barack Obama’s visit to India.

Both ministries had been at loggerheads a few months ago over Pillai’s comments on Pakistan’s ISI during foreign minister SM Krishna’s visit to Islamabad. The home secretary was directed by the prime minister’s office not to interact with the media after that episode. But he is back in full steam.

In a spate of interviews to the media during the past two days, Pillai has aired his displeasure over the US’s failure to provide “specific information” on Headley.
 
The MEA officials, who are baffled by the comments, feel these could not have been made without the tacit support of Union home minister P Chidambaram. Pillai’s diatribe against the US agencies has put the external affairs minister SM Krishna in a spot of bother as the issue is bound to dominate every media and public interaction involving the US president.

On the back foot, deputy national security advisor for strategic communication Ben Rhodes said, “If we had information that could have helped to prevent the attacks and pinpoint specific aspects, we would have certainly shared that too.”

The US authorities tried to douse a potential controversy last night itself by holding a special briefing for reporters in Washington. The report of the internal inquiry will be shared with India when all the facts are put together, said a US spokesman.

The home ministry’s assessment is that the MEA is “weak-kneed under SM Krishna” and unable to assert itself in matters of national security. In respect of stapled visa issue with China, the MEA has been unable to put its case in a tough manner, it feels.
Moreover, the home ministry assesses Obama’s trip as more of a “private visit to Mumbai” and even the official part of the visit does not contain anything that can enthuse Delhi. It’s a business trip for

US companies, who want to bag contracts. “If he wants all this, he should assist India in fighting terror and not help Pakistan,” is the refrain emanating from Chidambaram’s office. Pillai is only broadcasting it in the open.