Obituary: Jaswant Singh – Vajpayee’s ‘Man for all seasons’ who redefined Indo-US ties

New Delhi: Jaswant Singh was a man who told Americans bluntly, “You (the Americans) have invested so much in that relationship (with Pakistan) that you don’t know how to disinvest”.

The ability to pass on or represent Failure or Success is called Legacy. The best observation one has heard about person’s death, and the funeral is that a person can be generous and benevolent, but it’s true the attendance in his or her last journey ultimately depends on the weather. The Covid19 situation in 2020 is, of course, a living illustration few can dispute. But this has been precisely the spirit of how history is often guided by.

Of course, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh would be best remembered as the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘Man for all seasons’.

And in all that he did, Jaswant Singh’s role as India’s interlocutor – when Jaswant was not even a foreign minister – in the crucial period of Indian diplomatic history when post-Pokhran 2 it faced near isolation globally and especially from the United States and other global players.

Now, when it comes to Jaswant’s engagement with Strobe Talbott as suggested by the latter in a later stage – by his apt title of the book ‘Engaging India – Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb’ (a Penguin publication) – there is need to focus on some plain speaking that Late Jaswant Singh often did at the cost of displeasing the American leadership.

Here’s an instance. Stressing on the point of ‘futility’ of any purpose in the US pampering Pakistan, Jaswant Singh had at one point of the time remarked to the American side: “We realise that you’ve (US) invested so much in that relationship (with Pakistan) that you don’t know how to disinvest”. Jaswant Singh had also pointed up to Talbott that “we (India) held out the hand of friendship (to Nawaz Sharif), and we got a fist in the face”.

There have been occasions when Jaswant in mid-1999 had also suggested to his American negotiator that Pakistan was heading for a coup.

In fact, the Indian government had strong inkling of Gen Pervez Musharraf taking over soon – but New Delhi was always more cautious about a regime under Musharraf because he has been the “moving force behind the Pakistani incursion and who would be even more intractable on Kashmir”.

Talbott also admits in his book that ‘Jaswant was fatalistic about a coup’ in Pakistan but added :” there was nothing either India – or, for that matter, the United States could do to stop it, all we could do was not provoke it”.

Moreover, around that time the government of India under Vajpayee in the run-up to the 1999 parliamentary polls immediately after Kargil – did not drum up the war-cry. This can be debated because NDA’s victory became l easier in 1999 due to Kargil. Jaswant himself had told Talbott “we could have exploited the crisis”.

Subsequently, things really changed in the Indo-US context also globally since these Jaswant-Talbott dialogues.

It was not without good reason in 2010, all five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, China, Britain, Russia and France — came calling on India extending all-round friendship and cordial relations.

In 2011, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did some plain speaking vis-a-vis Pakistan and had said acidly -“You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours”.

Of course, by 2018-19 things have changed a lot and Pakistan got used to getting regular snubs at the UN and at times Islamabad virtually bought ’embarrassment’ for China too.

In the words of Talbott again, “Jaswant was as hardheaded and tenacious an advocate for his government’s position as I had ever encountered”.

Talbott also distinguished Jaswant and LK Advani saying, “to me differences between him and BJP hardliners like Advani were real, not tactical. Jaswant represented a more sophisticated, less militant, but no less firmly held view of Hindutva”.

In fact, if Talbott is to be believed, Jaswant and his team during the negotiations had given the US diplomats much tough time. “The danger with the Indians was that they would wear us down. They had their game plan ready and would stick with it”…. unlike Pakistanis, who Talbott said had no game plan.

Well, diplomacy is definitely about a certain amount of ambiguity – at least till the final call is taken.

And in terms of Indo-US relations, these were all relevant. It’s perhaps the irony of this country that Jaswant Singh never made it back as the external affairs minister once the Vajpayee regime was out. Under UPA-2, sadly, SM Krishna could make it. Congressman Shashi Tharoor, who has experience of diplomacy, pays tribute to Jaswantji and said: “His (Jaswant’s) contributions to defining & defending the Indian polity were substantial. His decency & courtliness were legendary”.