“This current storm means that the BJP — and the MEA — has moved on from the controversy over the shackled and handcuffed Indians deported on three US military flights in the last fortnight. Two of those flights landed in Amritsar after the PM returned home after meeting Trump, but no one in the government has still answered whether the Indian side raised this issue with Trump.”

The much-maligned “foreign hand”, a favorite charge of Indira Gandhi against her opponents, is back in vogue. Go back into The Tribune’s archives, dear Reader, and you will find several instances of the former Prime Minister alluding to undisclosed forces from abroad bent on wrecking the country. This was more than 40 years ago, of course, and we have surely moved on from those times and become a far more secure and confident nation.

This week, with apologies to Marcel Proust, has seemed a bit like wading into remembrances of things past. US President Donald Trump’s fast friend Elon Musk’s statement about USAID going to spend $21 million for “voter turnout in India,” has been taken as the gospel truth by the BJP. The ruling party is now targeting the Congress — just deserts, some would say — for receiving this money, after Trump’s throwaway comment that these monies could have been sent by the Joe Biden administration to try and “get someone else elected.”

Of course, Trump is playing to his gallery. Clearly, the BJP is also playing to its own, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) saying this information is “obviously very troubling” and leads to “concerns about foreign interference in India’s internal affairs.”

You could argue that this is “all politics,” which basically means the storm is an attempt at embarrassing Rahul Gandhi — not that he needs help. And even if it’s going to be blown away by the weekend, let’s examine what damage it has done to the teacup so far.

First, the embarrassment is to the MEA itself, not to the Congress party. The ministry, made up of one of the finest sets of diplomats in the world, has always sought to stay above the murky cesspool of politics — and very often, succeeded. It’s not for no reason that India’s prime ministers have often also been foreign ministers and when they haven’t, have maintained a deep interest in its affairs. (In fact, every ambassadorial appointment of the Republic of India is personally signed off by the PM.)

If that’s the role of the MEA, to be the protector of the national interest, it follows that it would not like itself to be used by any party in question. That’s why it picks and chooses its words carefully. Words, after all, are the only arrows of a diplomat’s armor, and each means what it says and intends to say.

Second, this current storm means that the BJP — and the MEA — has moved on from the controversy over the shackled and handcuffed Indians deported on three US military flights in the last fortnight. Two of those flights landed in Amritsar after the PM returned home after meeting Trump, but no one in the government has still answered whether the Indian side raised this issue with Trump.

But that story is over. Delhi has moved on.

However, the fact remains that many questions remain unanswered, including why the turbans of Sikh deportees were so unceremoniously removed. As for why they were shackled and cuffed, it seems this is what the Americans do — many other nationalities don’t, and haven’t, while sending unwanted Indians home, but the Americans ain’t taking any chances, it seems.

The original question remains. Did the Indian embassy in the US or the MEA in Delhi summon US diplomats and hand them a demarche asking why Indian nationals were treated so shabbily on those flights home?

Clearly, the Americans seem to have given up flights for the moment — so much cheaper to push them into Panama and Costa Rica. Delhi says it is checking the identities of these men — that may take a while, mark my words, because the procedure is truly lengthy and involves making the judgment whether these people are of some other South Asian nation — Indian or Pakistani or what? — or your own.

Come to think of it, if your illegal immigration agent has kept your passport or thrown it away in the jungle and you no longer have any papers, on what basis is the Indian diplomat in Costa Rica or Panama going to decide whether the man in front of him is Indian or not? His address back home? What he looks like? The language he speaks?

Third, the fact remains that no one really cares about these men and women caught in a Toba Tek Singh-like world which makes no sense — things back home in Punjab are awful in comparison, and the sunshine in Canada-US just so much more alluring. They want to escape, just like the Gujaratis do — the second highest number of deportees are from that state — and just like those of us with the influence to get that US visa.

Fourth, it’s time to cut to the chase. The truth is that the current storm has really been drummed up to distract you from analyzing the fast-paced changes in the world around you. After the Russia-US talks in Riyadh, Trump & Co seem to be fully in the mood to make nice with the Russians. More to the point, Trump has just invited China’s Xi Jinping to DC.

Does this mean, then, that a second Yalta-like conference is in the offing? That Trump, Putin and Xi will soon be lording over their respective continents — Russia to be given Europe and China to be given Asia? Even if that is an exaggeration, dear Reader, you get the point. You can also bet your last rupee that the best spirits are flowing across Moscow and Beijing these days.

And that’s the last question of this piece : If Trump is going to embrace Xi in what is obviously looking like a braver new world, what place does India have in it, especially when India and Modi were looking to Trump and America as a hedge against Beijing?

Perhaps, this is a wake-up call for India. Perhaps, it’s time to focus inwards and develop your own strength. As for the distraction of the “foreign hand,” let’s see it for exactly what it is and has always been, a distraction.
(Jyoti Malhotra is Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune group of newspapers. She has been a journalist for 40 years, working in print, TV and digital, both in English and Hindi media, besides being a regular contributor on BBC Radio. She is also interested in the conflation between politics and foreign policy. Her X handle is @jomalhotra Insta handle @jomalhotra
Email: jyoti.malhotra@tribunemail.com)