Exchange of Diplomatic Gifts – The Bits and Pieces

 

Exchange of Diplomatic Gifts – The Bits and Pieces

A diplomatic gift is a gift given by a diplomat, politician or leader when visiting a foreign country. Usually the gift is reciprocated by the host.  It’s an important diplomatic gesture of any visit.

The immediate instigation to write about diplomatic gifts is the recent exchange of gifts during PM Narendra Modi’s State Visit to the USA and exchange of gifts. Renowned columnist Karan Thapar wrote in his usual Sunday article in the Hindustan Times – Frost, Nehru, Modi and a book of poems, “Frost was, probably, Jawaharlal Nehru’s favourite poet. One of the poems in the collection gifted to Modi is Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening. It ends with evocative lines - The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to Keep, And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” Commenting on the selection of the gift, Karan Thapar added, “It is hard to believe they (selectors of the gift) aren’t aware of the Nehru-Frost connection or the Nehru-Modi discord.” Let us leave it to diplomatic analysts to break their head to dig and get the motive of the diplomatic gesture of the US host. PM Narendra Modi was, a few years ago, was gifted a costly horse but the gift was not brought to India because of advise of the concerned authorities of environment and forestry.  But I, as Director of the Central Asia Division in the MEA, distinctly remember that sometime in 1999-2000, EAM Jaswant Singh brought a Horse from Kazakhstan gifted him by his counterpart. The Google Guru gives many details of the gifts from lions leopards, elephants etc. exchanged among dignitaries as diplomatic gifts. Some gifts become fine occasions to celebrate and commemorate. PM Jawaharlal Nehru gifted an Indian elephant, named Raja, to his then Ceylonese (Sri Lanka) counterpart in the 1950s. Raja ultimately found his abode at the Dalada Maligawa (House of the Tooth Relic of Gautama the Buddha) in Kandy. Raja carried the Tooth Relic at his back every year in the annual event called Perahera and toured the major streets of Kandy in a

procession. Raja was declared a ‘National Treasure’ by Sri Lanka. Raja died at a ripe age sometime in 1986-87. On advice of High Commissioner JN Dixit in Colombo, it fell on me as the Acting Assistant High Commissioner of India in Kandy to lay the wreath on the dead-body of Raja, kept at the majestic Dalada Maligawa, on behalf of the High Commissioner and the GOI. India gifted an elephant to Turkey sometime in 1998-99 during the visit of President K.R. Narayanan. I handled this hefty gift as Director of the Central Asia Division under the guidance of the then Joint Secretary (CA) in MEA, Aloke Sen, in locating and transporting an elephant from one of sanctuaries in Assam.

Being one from the diplomatic career, I personally saw and witnessed the game or art of exchanging diplomatic gifts in the process of work. I remember some of the fine nuances of gift diplomacy of legendary diplomat, Ambassador Kanti Shankar Bajpai in the late 1970s. He gifted the best of Indian mangos to the Chinese dignitaries and his counterparts in the diplomatic corps in Peking, a much appreciated diplomatic gesture. On move from Peking, I was appointed as Protocol Officer dealing with gifts in the MEA in early 1980s and witnessed many occasions of selecting and handling exchange of diplomatic gifts under the stewardship of then DCP, Ambassador Navrekha Sharma and the COP, Vice President Hamid Ansari, both among the finest diplomats of India.  Some of the anecdotes, pertaining to diplomatic gifts, of that time may be of interest – PM Indira Gandhi was very particular and interested in selecting a few top level gifts to be exchanged both for outgoing and incoming visits. I personally got entangled, though a junior functionary, in the process for a couple of occasions. On a coup in Bangladesh, the new leader, General Hussain Mohammad Ershad along with his wife, Begum Rowshan, decided to come to Delhi all of a sudden. PM Indira Gandhi was very busy as the parliament was in session. It was decided to give a suitable gift to General Ershad already selected and approved by PM Gandhi for some other Head of State of an Islamic country. Gift for the spouse of the guest posed a small but serious problem as nobody was inclined to ask PM Indira Gandhi. COP directed me, because of my earlier stint as Protocol Officer in the GHO of PMO, to somehow solve the problem. I could do it with the help of my connections in the PM’ House. PM came for lunch and one of her Aides informed her that I was there for the purpose. After washing her hands and a small towel in her hands came to a small room at the entrance. I showed her a few Banarsi Sarees spread on a sofa, collected from the Cottage Industry Emporium. She appreciated it, perhaps, to relieve me of palpable tension on my face. PM enquired from me about the complexion of the guest, Begum Rowshan and without waiting to listen from me herself answered “Bangladeshi sambale rang ke hi hote hain” and nodded to gift a Banarsi Silk Saree. I cherish the memory of those couple of minutes of personal interaction in the process of selecting a diplomatic gift – Once the gift to Arafat Yassar posed a bit of problem because of paucity of time. PM Indira Gandhi advised to give a pistol/revolver to Arafat Yassar (he used to carry the weapon on his waist) from one of India’s own ordinance factories. It was found that the weapon was not readily available in Delhi. It resulted in some running around and with the help of Ministry of Defense a pistol was obtained from Meerut and gifted along with a couple of boxes of juicy alphonsos (Mangos) which I personally collected from a shop in Connaught Place and delivered at the airport – Yet another occasion, Pakistani High Commissioner in a day or two of presenting his credentials to President Giani Zail Singh was indisposed and was admitted in the AIIMS. It was decided to send a bouquet of flowers to the High Commissioner on behalf of President Giani Zail Singh to wish him speedy recovery.  The honours again fell on me. On presenting the bouquet, I could feel that how these small gestures do a lot of good in developing and smoothening relations – Protocol Division of the MEA occasionally used to arrange a sort of ‘Meena Bazar’ at PM Residence and Rashtrapati Bhawan for picking up gifts for the outgoing and incoming High level Visits with gift item from Cottage Industry Emporium and the State Emporiums to expose traditional Indian art and culture in foreign countries. President Giani Zail Singh was to visit the USA and a Meena Bazar was arranged at the Rashtrapati Bhawan with a prominent slot to the Punjab Emporium. Punjab Emporium, obviously, came with traditional Phulkari work etc. Giani ji came and saw the Meena Bazar and, off the cuff, remarked that why were we taking this kind of stuff rather than something new and of utility? Being the one from the Protocol Division of MEA, I humbly responded and said, Sir, it was the laid down policy right from the days of PM Jawaharlal Nehru to gift things to showcase Indian traditional skills. President Sahib was a sharp man with an earthy sense of understanding, he simply nodded in silence – PM Indira Gandhi desired to carry incensed wood “Oudh”, one of costly timbers, for her Saudi hosts during one of her state visits to Saudi Arabia. We had work overtime in sourcing ‘Oudh’ from Dehradoon, if my memory does not fail me. Especially hand-crafted wooden presentation boxes were got made through the Cottage Industry Emporium to present Oudh to the Saudi dignitaries. Gift presentations may create, sometimes, avoidable fox pauses. Generally diplomatic gifts are not exchanged in person and not opened instantly. Our Embassy in Stockholm (Sweden) was concurrently accredited to Latvia, a newly breakaway country from the erstwhile USSR sometime in 1992-93. I, as the First Secretary of the Embassy in Stockholm, joined an official delegation headed by the then Joint Secretary (EE) in the MEA, Nalin Surie. It was decided to handover our usual gifts, HMT watches, to the Latvian counterparts immediately after the conclusion of the signing ceremony of documents as Nalin Surie Sahib was to move directly to airport to catch up with his travel schedule. Our hosts happily decided to open their gifts there itself. It was found that one of the gifted watches was not working due some technical glitch. It was a somewhat embarrassing situation. Luckily, I was carrying in my briefcase an additional gift (HMT watch). Before anybody commented on the situation, I immediately replaced the gift attracting the attention of Nalin Surie Sahib who appreciatively commented ‘see, our boys can do it’. The pleasantness of the occasion remained intact.

Diplomatic gifts carry a considerable emotional and professional value. A painting, personally painted by the Dean of Diplomatic Corp, was gifted to me at a farewell function hosted by us at the

India House in Minsk (Belarus) which was signed by all the resident Ambassadors, still adorns one of the walls of the sitting room of our humble home in Jalandhar. I still carry on my wrist, occasionally, a self winding locally made watch with the photo of then President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov which was gifted to me sometime in 1999-2000 as a member of an official cultural delegation headed by the our Minister Ananth Kumar for the Indian Cultural Days in 1999-2000 to commemorate Bairam Khan. Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khana animated the historic relations between India and Turkmenistan during the Mughal period.

With this, I conclude this impromptu effort to register some oral history.