S.M. Krishna will be remembered for his grace as External Affairs Minister

S.M. Krishna’s tenure as Minister of External Affairs (2009-2011) is often remembered for gaffes, like the time in 2011 when he accidentally began to read out the Portuguese Foreign Minister’s speech at the United Nations, but diplomats and journalists covering Indian Foreign Policy have lasting memories of Mr. Krishna’s grace and “old style of politics  and diplomacy” in what was a particularly tense second term for the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, and his ability to deal with crisis without showing the pressure.

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His tenure in handling Indian diplomacy was particularly difficult as the government pressed Pakistan for accountability over the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and Mr. Krishna was pilloried for a press conference in Islamabad in 2010 where the then Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was publicly rude about the fact that Mr. Krishna had “taken calls from New Delhi” during their meetings.

Mr. Krishna, however, shrugged off the personal attacks, pursuing his line on the need for Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed to be brought to justice. The period also saw the U.S. come around to India’s view on terror emanating from Pakistan, and New Delhi was able to place Pakistan on the Financial Action Task Force’s ‘grey list’ for the first time in 2012.

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A series of Wikileaks cables sent over India-U.S. talks at the time quoted Mr. Krishna’s persistent line on the need to address terrorism with U.S. officials, including the then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Officials at the time also remember that no matter the controversy or criticism, Mr. Krishna, who had a long career in politics by the time he took oath as Minister at the age of 77, never deflected the blame for problems to his juniors or colleagues.

‘Well-connected’

“He was very good at cooling down tempers, adding moderation to any desire by others to respond in haste”, said an Indian Foreign Service Officer who worked with him at the time. As a globally well-travelled former Chief Minister of Karnataka, who had studied in the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar, the official found Mr. Krishna well-connected , “who did not need to be told how the world worked.” Mr. Krishna’s bigger challenge, however, was to carve out a space for himself where he did not step on toes in the Prime Minister’s Office, while fighting off attempts by other senior Ministers seeking to encroach on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)’s workings.

Mr. Krishna also faced some push back from within the Ministry, like when he hired a Bangalore-based tech MNC to modernise the working of the passport system in India. The launch of the Passport Sewa Project in 2010 revolutionised the distribution of passports by putting tech consultants in charge of gathering data and biometrics and cutting down the time and middlemen involved in the process. For a while, the All India Passport Employees Association even went on strike to protest the changes. However, officials recall Mr. Krishna’s refusal to reconsider his plans.

Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao, who served from 2009-2011, which was much of Mr. Krishna’s tenure, remembers him as someone who put “unqualified trust in his team, making it clear that he valued professionalism and hard work above all,” and particularly valued innovation.

The MEA was also at the forefront during those years of the Arab Spring, as millions of Indians living and working in the Gulf region were affected, and the government launched repatriation operations for Indians from Egypt, Tunisia and war-torn Libya, where NATO fighters launched attacks against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“During the Libya crisis, Mr. Krishna placed his trust and confidence in me in all the decisions I took or recommended on the repatriation, including my decision, as the first serving  Secretary to the Government of India to join Twitter in order to communicate with our nationals in Libya when all other modes of communication had failed,” Ms. Rao recalled.

On travels abroad and meetings with his counterparts, Mr. Krishna was known for speaking only in “broad strokes” about India’s position and vision, while leaving the detailed negotiations to his diplomats.

Remarkable year

The year 2010 was seen as a remarkable coming of age for India’s diplomatic standing, as every leader of the U.N. Security Council’s “P-5” made bilateral visits to India, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President  Hu Jintao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, U.K. PM David Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin, all within a matter of a few months, and each affirmed their support for India’s place in the UNSC. Both officials and journalists remember the whirlwind of meetings through that year and intense planning for it in the MEA , particularly the smell of freshly brewed coffee that Mr. Krishna ensured anyone visiting him was served.

Of all his counterparts, Mr. Krishna had a particularly warm relationship with Ms. Clinton, and often spoke of his time in the United States, when he campaigned for U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1960, as part of the “Young Democrats” at George Washington University. Years later, touched by a bouquet of flowers Mr. Krishna sent her when she broke her arm, Ms. Clinton presented him with an author-inscribed copy of a book on Kennedy written by his brother Robert Kennedy. In her own memoirs, Ms. Clinton writes about the hard bargain Mr. Krishna drove on Iran, when the U.S. wanted India to end oil imports.

“He stood firm on issues concerning India’s national honour and had a sound understanding of its interests”, said Vivek Katju, who was Secretary (West) at the time, recalling Mr. Krishna’s tough line on India’s demand for the extradition of fugitive Kim Davy from Denmark.

As the Singh government ran into controversy over a number of scams in its second tenure, Mr. Krishna faced mounting criticism over the running of the MEA, and particularly over his age. He brushed aside the barbs over his reading of the Portuguese speech at the U.N. as a genuine mistake, as translations of the Minister speaking before him had been left on the table behind, and the fault, if any, lay with the MEA officials who did not ensure he had the correct speech to read out.

However, he faced more such moments in Parliament, as he paused to reflect on an answer or on account of his hearing aid, and once angrily sued a media agency for calling him “absent-minded” in Parliament.  After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made pejorative remarks about Ministers “over the age of 80”, it became apparent that Mr. Krishna would be replaced.

Correspondents covering Mr. Krishna were used to a warm welcome at his home in Delhi, but on the day he finally decided to resign in October 2012, they were asked to stand outside. When the gates finally opened, it was because Mr. Krishna had asked his official ministerial cars to leave, and then travelled in his own car to the airport to leave for Bangalore.