Search the Internet          Tips

'Agnihotri's appointment will divide NRIs'

P Jayaram in New Delhi

The appointment of a known Bharatiya Janata Party supporter as India's ambassador-at-large in Washington could fracture the Indian American community in the United States and defeat the very purpose of the appointment, diplomatic experts cautioned on Friday.

The government had announced on Thursday the appointment of Bhishma Kumar Agnihotri, a non-resident Indian academic in the US and a close friend of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as ambassador-at-large for NRIs and people of Indian origin in its Washington embassy.

Agnihotri, 68, currently working as chancellor, Southern University Law Centre, Baton Rouge, is expected to take up his assignment shortly.

But analysts warned the appointment of Agnihotri, who migrated to the US over 30 years ago and is a key figure in the Overseas Friends of BJP, the international wing of the ruling party, would lead to divisions in the NRI community.

"I have grave doubts if it would serve the interests of India. In fact, it will defeat the very purpose for which he has been appointed," a former Indian envoy to Washington said on condition of anonymity.

"The others will feel upset and this will result in the fracture of the cohesion in the Indian American community painstakingly achieved in recent years. The Gujaratis will fume," he added.

Agnihotri is a Punjabi from Jalandhar and the rivalry among various NRI groups on linguistic and political lines in the US and elsewhere is well known.

But senior BJP vice-president J P Mathur discounted such a possibility. He said the fact that Agnihotri is a supporter of the BJP would in no way affect his functioning in the post to which he had been appointed.

"How does it matter? He may be associated with a particular political party, but that does not divest him of the honesty of purpose," he argued.

Conceding that some "Congress-minded people" among the NRIs could criticise his appointment, he said: "They should be above that. He is well-placed and well-equipped to carry out those tasks."

But what those tasks are and whether Agnihotri would report to India's Ambassador Lalit Mansingh or directly to the prime minister is not known.

"It is a bad decision. It will create protocol and disciplinary problems. Institutionally it corrodes the coherence of the system," said former foreign secretary J N Dixit.

Would Agnihotri route his advice to the government through the ambassador or directly to the prime minister, he too wondered.

Veteran diplomats said this was the first time the post of ambassador-at-large had been created. Earlier, former ambassadors and diplomats "living in India" had been appointed to carry out specific tasks assigned by the prime minister.

Some former ambassadors had also been appointed as commissioners general in addition to their charge to take care of economic matters.

"But this is the first time an NRI, a person not living in India, has been so designated," a former diplomat pointed out.

Dixit described Agnihotri's appointment as "legally illogical and politically a confusing step" and said the appointment of a known BJP supporter would antagonise NRI groups affiliated to other political parties.

Said the former envoy quoted earlier: "Even in the Indian American community this particular guy is not known. There are much better people who spend more money and time for the cause of India-US relations."

"There are many more qualified people," he said, "who could have been appointed. There are many who collect 50 to 60 senators when they have a party." The former envoy added that Agnihotri's appointment would have repercussions among the Indian diaspora beyond the US.

"You appoint a man with party affiliation and you create divisions within the Indian community," said another former diplomat who has served in the US. "It will polarise the community."

But a senior official said: "Mr Agnihotri can do a lot by maintaining a constant interface with the NRIs and help serve as a vital bridge in galvanising Indians to participate in development projects back home."

"The persistent complaint of the NRIs has been that Indian missions have hardly any time for them," he noted.

Indo-Asian News Service

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report