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Government livid over Congress' diplomatic offensive with China, South Africa

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's decision to despatch top party leaders on diplomatic missions to South Africa and China has made the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government livid.

While Lok Sabha leader and former defence minister Sharad Pawar is leading a party delegation to South Africa, the Congress' foreign affairs department chief and former minister of state for external affairs Natwar Singh will head a group of party leaders to China.

Pawar will meet President Nelson Mandela on an invitation from African National Congress president and South African vice-president Thabo Mbeki. Singh's visit comes in the wake of an invitation from the Chinese external affairs department.

But the Vajpayee government and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders see red in Sonia's diplomatic offensive with South Africa and China -- the two countries with which the coalition government exchanged diplomatic acrimony ever since the Pokhran nuclear tests in May.

Sensing immense potential in the Pawar-Singh foreign trips, Sonia was initially advised by the party's foreign policy wing to draft and send two official letters to the Chinese and South African presidents.

But the Congress president has now apparently shelved the idea of writing directly to the heads of the two foreign governments thanks to a bad media and fearing protests from the Vajpayee government.

''This is the first time an Opposition party in India is indulging in parallel diplomacy. The government has the right to ask the Congress president to desist from taking up bilateral matters with foreign countries,'' an official at the external affairs ministry told Rediff On The NeT.

He said the government does not ''feel comfortable'' with Congress delegations visiting China and South Africa especially at this juncture. ''The visit could be interpreted as the government's failure to keep up the long-standing relations with China and South Africa after the nuclear tests,'' the official added.

India's relations with China and South Africa have soured since the Pokhran tests and on the Kashmir issue vis-a-vis Pakistan.

Recently, the Congress harshly criticised the Vajpayee government for its handling of South Africa, a country which the Congress leaders feel has age-old ties with India.

Prime Minister Vajpayee and the BJP leadership had flayed Mandela during the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Durban earlier this month when Mandela tried to take up the Kashmir issue internationally.

India improved its ties with China after then Congress prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited that country in 1988.

Congress leaders now believe that after the nuclear tests, Sino-Indian relations have taken a nose-dive especially when Defence Minister George Fernandes began his verbal assault on Beijing.

The prime minister's letter to United States President Bill Clinton soon after the nuclear tests had described India's uneasiness at China's nuclear programme and how its growing military might is threatening other countries in Asia.

''The government has spoiled India's traditional ties with South Africa and the ANC by criticising Mandela. The Congress feels the Vajpayee government's sabre-rattling with South Africa and China has unnecessarily upset our relations with these countries,'' Natwar Singh told Rediff On The NeT.

But Singh, head of the Congress foreign affairs cell, said the party delegations to Chiina and South Africa are not meant ''to offset or upset'' the government's diplomatic agenda. ''But as the principal Opposition party, the Congress has the right to visit any country,'' he added.

BJP leaders do not agree and say by despatching diplomatic delegations to China and South Africa, the Congress president is trying to sabotage the Government of India's official line.

''We feel this so-called diplomatic offensive from the Congress president is an attempt to embarrass the Vajpayee government,'' a senior BJP leader and party ideologue told Rediff On The NeT.

''Foreign policy is the prerogative of the government in power. We do not know why the Congress leadership is indulging in parallel diplomacy,'' the BJP leader said warning that ''the Congress diplomacy should not be an intrusion into sensitive foreign policies.''

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Congress move to send delegations to China and South Africa not aimed at embarrassing the government: Gujral

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