Dear Rajdeep,
Let me re-write your article from another perspective. Can I?
Shashi Tharoor is home bred professional who has been in the metro India most part of his life.
He knows everything about India, & Indian political system ( or lack of it.).He cannot feign ignorance about the Indian political system. As a global diplomat accepting a minister of state position in MEA is a great climb down for him. I do not think any of the previous foreign ministers had experience as Deputy Secretary General. He could have refused the parliament ticket and instead accepted advisory role to the PM. (Something Montek Singh Ahluwalia has done successfully) or spent sometime getting the feel of the political environment as a MOS. He had a great opportunity to do that as an understudy of the great statesman S M Krishna, which he failed to utilize.
Indian political system has always been like this, it will not change in future also. You need to gel with it to survive. Defining the political system in India is like nailing jelly to wall. I do agree with you that, had he survived, in the course of time, he would have definitely risen to become one of the best foreign ministers India has ever produced on lines of people like Sardar Swaran Singh, Dr. Karan Singh, Raja Dinesh Singh, Jaswant Singh, Vajpayee and others. In fact Vajpayee was very honest, when he in his maiden speech as foreign minister in 1977 praised all his predecessors.
Probably Shashi Tharoor took a little longer time to transit from the American system of open expression to the Tight Upper Lip System we inherited from the British. Shashi Tharoor is a great resource for the country. He will very soon make a come back and contribute valuably to the country’s foreign policy.
Regarding Jairam Ramesh, he has been silently doing organizational work for congress for almost a decade in strategy planning. His contribution as environment minister is exemplary. This is just one off discretion which the prime minister has decided to condone. It would not be out of place to mention here the contribution of another young minister Sachin Pilot. The Wharton alumnus is contributing tremendously in building a robust rural telecom infrastructure. Due to the nature of his ministry, his work is going unnoticed.
Rajdeep, I can tell you, these minister have the strength of knowledge, attitude, honesty, & pedigree. They will continue to contribute inspite of the caste factor.
I am sure, Next time when we write about them, it will be about their contribution to the Indian polity.
Best wishes,
Shyam
Shyamsunder Panchavati
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