A masterly slip

Sometimes it so happens that even a knowledgeable, articulate diplomat misses on the very basics, leaving others in the lurch, reveals Sharada Prasad

Nothing is over until it is over. This is particularly true of international affairs. A state visit or a one-to-one summit is not over until the visiting head has actually boarded his plane and it is airborne. Here is a story of how a veteran diplomat forgot this elementary rule.

The veteran concerned was TN Kaul. “Tikkibhai”, as he was popularly called, was a consummate diplomat, known for his knowledge, resourcefulness, and inexhaustible energy. He had represented the country in all the major capitals of the world and had taken part in virtually every important international conference in the 1960s and 1970s. In his day, there was no world leader who did not know him. So much so, that it became customary to describe Indian diplomacy as one-third protocol, one-third alcohol and one-third ‘Tikki Kaul’.

Tikkibhai had a prodigious capacity for imbibing alcoholic spirits but that had apparently no visible impact on his composure or his capacity for cogent argument. For this alone, if for nothing else, he was much admired by the younger people in the foreign service. Even the Russians were impressed. But there were many other reasons why his fellow diplomats looked up to Tikki Kaul, such as his grasp, his powers of articulation, his special way of combining earnestness and good cheer, and his capacity for correctly guessing the implication of the interlocutor's proposals in our national interest. In addition, he was a warm human being with genuine interest in his juniors, who, in turn, envied him for his famous charm. There were many stories about his conquests.
It is difficult to believe that such a ‘compleat angler’ could slip up. But such things happen. It happened with Tikkibhai in Shimla at the time of the historic meeting between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi.

There is no need for me here to go into the details of what the two discussed. A large contingent of reporters had converged on Shimla to cover the event. The Pakistan delegation, in its briefings, was consistently pessimistic. Indira Gandhi, for her part, believed that the terms offered by India were so fair, and even generous, that Bhutto would be hard put to explain to his people and to the world why he had rejected them, and anyway he could not afford to go back empty-handed. But around 4.30 on the afternoon of the final day, the press community was convinced that the talks had broken down. They could not be blamed because the foreign secretary of India, Tikki Kaul, himself had unambiguously said so. And Tikkibhai had followed up his announcement by getting into his car and driving away from Shimla.

That served as a signal for a rapid exodus of the press corps. India was still in the pre-TV age, but most of the foreign correspondents of the printed press and visual media, who were accustomed to take their briefing from the ministry of external affairs, were the first to leave. Some senior reporters, particularly those who knew that it was PN Haksar, rather than TN Kaul, who was Indira Gandhi's main counsellor as far as the Shimla talks were concerned, sought a clarification from me, citing what Tikkibhai had said. I cryptically told them, "If I were you, I would stay and leave only after Bhutto leaves."

As the evening wore on, our pulse began to beat faster. There was a state banquet that night, but people hardly noticed what the fare was. An agreement had been concluded. It was given to me to announce it to the rump of the press corps that had stayed back. When making arrangements for the signing ceremony, I found there were no cameramen to record this major news story. With great difficulty, I rounded up a couple of photographers. If memory serves me right, even the Press Information Bureau had to depend on a non-governmental lensman for the official picture that
it released.

But the foreign secretary of India was not there. Fortunately, the foreign minister was very much present. Sardar Swaran Singh, along with the other members of the political affairs committee of the cabinet at that time, Jagjivan Ram, Y B Chavan and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, stood behind to witness Bhutto and Indira Gandhi sign the document.