Last Friday, Richard Rahul Verma, the new ambassador of the US, presented his credentials to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan. On the same day, Nadir Patel, the incoming high commissioner for Canada to India too presented his credentials to the president. Considering that the US and Canada have very large numbers of Indian immigrants, at around 3.2 million and 1.2 million respectively, the significance of Washington DC and Ottawa appointing for the first time persons of Indian origin (PIOs) to head their missions in India isn’t lost on analysts of foreign affairs.
Verma, a former US assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs with the department of state, and a lawyer who had worked at Steptoe & Johnson, has been handpicked by US president Barack Obama to head the Indian mission in the wake of what a section of analysts saw as a troubled tenure of his predecessor Nancy Powell, who faced criticism over the handling of l’affaire Khobragade (Devyani Khobragade was arrested by US law enforcement whilst serving as deputy consul general in New York for allegedly making false statements on a visa application for her housekeeper).
Verma for his part has picked up the baton in characteristic diplomatic style. Upon arrival in India , he said: “I am honoured to serve as US ambassador to India at such an exciting time in our bilateral relationship. I look forward to meeting the Indian people and working together with the Indian government on our shared goals of security, development, and prosperity.” The timing of his Indian assignment couldn’t have come at a more significant time, just a few days before the highoctane Republic Day visit of the US president.
Verma’s family has a typical Indian-American immigrant story with his father, who was originally from undivided Punjab, moving to the US for a better lifestyle. “My dad, like other immigrants, left his wife and kids behind, to find a better opportunity, a better future. He arrived in New York City in 1963 with $24 that he had borrowed, and a bus ticket to northern Iowa… My mom and brothers and sisters would come over a few years later,” Verma said in a speech published in a South Asian journal last year. But his parents had an American dream for their children and they not only supported him to go to a law school but also helped him to remain connected with his Indian roots.
“He got the job as he is the best qualified. Being Indian-American will enable him to understand the nuances of the culture and some of the sensitivities that Indians have developed over a period of time that others may not even understand — such as the treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade,” says Sanjay Puri, chairman of the Washington DC based US-India Political Action Committee.
However, this may not be the first time that a high-profile diplomat of Indian origin has arrived in Delhi in the wake of ruffled feathers in India. Peter Varghese, a former Australian high commissioner to India, whose school teacher parents had immigrated first to Kenya and then Australia from Kerala, arrived in India in 2009 at a time when there were widespread racist attacks against Indian students in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. In his first few months in Delhi, Varghese had to deal with the widespread media coverage of the attacks and questions on whether the attacks were racist and why Indians were being singled out. And though Varghese travelled many times to Kerala and his ancestral village to reconnect with his roots during his tenure in India, whether his Indian origin became an asset remains an unanswered question.
Indian Roots Come Handy
“One’s Indian roots can be leveraged to gain a better understanding of India’s complexities and the linguistic and cultural diversity. In that way it can give someone like me an edge,” says Patel, whose parents moved to Canada from Gujarat and who has visited Gujarat and Mumbai often since childhood. He was overwhelmed by the huge support that he received from the Indian diaspora in Canada after his appointment was announced in October last year. “While my main job here is to represent the Canadian government, the fact that the Indian-Canadian community and organisations have shown so much support gives me an additional responsibility. Canada is a multicultural country with a lot of opportunities for Indian immigrants and many of them have excelled in different walks of life. In their own way, they are all mini-ambassadors of India in Canada,” Patel added. As for presenting his credentials on the same day as ambassador Verma, he thinks that he couldn’t have asked for a more distinguished north American counterpart.
For most western governments, the olden days of political diplomacy are over, feels Bob Dhillon, chief executive of Mainstreet Equity, a real estate company in Canada. “What better way to build trade and commerce bridges than to appoint someone like Nadir Patel as high commissioner, who besides having an impeccable profile, is also of Indian origin. That he has his roots in Gujarat — the home state of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi — is an added advantage,” says Dhillon who is of Punjabi origin. While some of the western countries are slowly opening up to the idea of sending diplomats of Indian origin for high-profile assignments in India, others such as some Caribbean nations have had Indian Foreign Service officer. He feels that though such postings come with a lot of expectations, they are usually a win-win for both the governments.
An example is Nimisha J Madhvani, Uganda’s former high commissioner to India, who is herself from one of the best-known Indian business families there. “It is easy for Indians to settle down in Uganda. Besides the Gujarati business community, who have been in Uganda for many years, there are young professionals too who are moving to Uganda. Many of the business families who had left the country during Idi Amin’s dictatorship have now returned; Indians have done well in all walks of life,” Madhvani had told ET Magazine in an interview when she was in Delhi.
Source: The Economic Times
