For mysterious reasons the newest poster boy of the Indian establishment and the Delhi durbar in particular is Shashi Tharoor, the former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, who is now back in India after having been sacked by the newly elected UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, the cheerful former foreign minister of South Korea. Despite Tharoor being closely associated with the administration of former secretary-general Kofi Annan whose term ended last December under a cloud, following revelations that his son was involved in some unsavoury shenanigans connected with the UN’s food-for-oil programme in Iraq (which also cut short the career of India’s former foreign minister Natwar Singh), the Congress-led UPA government and the PMO (prime minister’s office) ill-advisedly supported Tharoor’s candidature for the post of secretary-general in opposition to Moon, who had the support of all permanent members of the Security Council. In the process by actively supporting the candidacy of Tharoor, a lightweight career diplomat with the UN who did little of note during his several decades with the UN except pen some forgettable novels, New Delhi severely damaged its chances of being accepted as a permanent member of the Security Council, an unwarranted desideratum upon which the Indian establishment has set its heart. Now back in India, Tharoor is busy working his St. Stephen’s and Oxbridge connections with several Delhi-based media tycoons and planting stories about his imminent induction into the Union cabinet as foreign minister, a post which has been vacant for over six months following the unlamented resignation of Natwar Singh. The fact that he has spent little time in India during the past several decades and is a stranger to its political culture and processes, has not in the least deterred Tharoor or his champions in the metropolitan media. Against this cumulative backdrop, political prudence and commonsense would dictate that Tharoor’s candidacy for the foreign ministry should be treated as an offer which must be refused, inspired media support notwithstanding. In departure lounge Policies are more important than personalities; the public interest must be accorded precedence over private preference; in governance the watchword must be the greater good of the greatest number. Such platitudes roll off the tongues of politicians and bureaucrats with practised ease. But in reality within the cosy club that constitutes the Indian establishment, there is an unspoken understanding that the convenience of members is given prime importance, the public interest be damned. Proof of this gap between practice and precept is provided by the latest news that several meetings of the Union cabinet to discuss the vital issue of terms and conditions under which foreign universities will be allowed to offer education and qualifications in India have been repeatedly cancelled, because septuagenarian Union HRD minister Arjun Singh has been ailing for some time. In the meanwhile the proposals of several blue-chip American and British universities who are keen to offer their high quality study programmes either in collaboration with local partners or by way of establishing their own campuses in this country, have…
