Navtej Sarna

Watch | Biden Seems to Have Greenlighted Israeli Invasion of Gaza, Dropped Insistence on Laws of War

Navtej Sarna, former Indian ambassador to Israel and the United States, tells Karan Thapar in an interview that there is a significant difference between the statements made by the US President before and after he visited Israel. The 23-minute interview captures rapidly changing dynamics in the ongoing conflict.

A former Indian ambassador to both Israel and the United States, with a very good grasp of the politics of both countries, says President Joe Biden’s eight-hour visit to Israel on October 18 “will not be critical to what happens next”. Navtej Sarna says that the next seven to 10 days are “absolutely crucial” because during this period we will discover the size and scale of Israel’s ground offensive and the impact that it has on Palestinians living in Gaza as well as on public opinion and governments in the rest of the Middle East.

In a 23-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Navtej Sarna, who has also served as high commissioner to the United Kingdom, said there is no doubt that there was a significant difference between what President Biden used to say before he visited Israel, when he warned that Israel must observe the rules of war, and the statement he made on Israeli soil Wednesday when he only cautioned against being consumed by rage.

Sarna suggested that it seems as if Biden could have green-lighted a ground invasion by Israel, provided the extent of lives killed and the destruction of Gaza is within a measure of restraint and limit. Of course, Sarna said, we do not know what Biden said to Prime Minister Netanyahu behind closed doors but this can be sensed from his public statements.

Speaking about President Biden’s announcement that Israel has agreed to permit humanitarian aid for Gaza through the Rafah crossing in Egypt, Sarna pointed out that this will be heavily impacted by the conditions Israel has laid down. Those conditions not only require checking of the trucks coming into Gaza by the Red Cross and not sharing the supplies with Hamas but also rule out the supply of fuel and, additionally, limit the supplies to only south Gaza and not Gaza north of Wadi Gaza.

According to the BBC, there are still some 4-500,000 Palestinians in north Gaza and they, therefore, will not get access to these supplies. Also, it seems, only 20 trucks will be permitted entry into Gaza on Friday. We don’t know what will happen thereafter.

There are many other issues raised with Sarna in this interview. This includes the cancellation of the Jordan summit and, also, a question of whether President Biden and the United States’s endorsement of the Israeli position that Islamic jihad was responsible for the attack on the Gaza hospital will upset or, at least, be of great concern to the Arab leaders.

There are also questions about whether President Biden’s personal and emotional behaviour in clear support of Israel will have an impact on the Arab countries.

Questions are also asked about whether the last 11 days have created an opportunity or, at least, room for China to fish in Middle Eastern waters. After successfully bringing Iran and Saudi Arabia together could Beijing want to dip its hands into the turbulent waters of Israel and Palestine?

I will leave you to find out about all of this from the interview.

Watch | Why Britain, A Declining Power, Still Retains an Enduring Appeal

In an interview with Karan Thapar, India’s former High Commissioner to the UK Navtej Sarna responds to this topical question.

The death of Queen Elizabeth and the accession of King Charles has meant that the attention of much of the world is presently riveted on Great Britain. Once again this is a reminder of how a small island off the coast of Europe, now a diminishing economy and declining political power, can captivate the imagination and fascination of the world. Is this both a paradox but also Britain’s real influence? India’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and an acclaimed author of biographies and historical fiction, Navtej Sarna, responds to this topical question.

The answer is sought in four areas: the monarchy as an institution and the personality of Queen Elizabeth in particular, the English language, the BBC and the almost unique British sense of humour.

In a 30-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Sarna talks about the qualities of the British monarchy that have made many believe it is unique, the personality of Queen Elizabeth, the fascination people have with the peccadillos, infidelities and love affairs of the Royal Family and why this family is far better known and recognised than, say, the Dutch, Scandinavian and Japanese royal families.

Sarna also discusses the power, reach and spread of the English language. How much soft power influence does this confer on Britain? Also, how much does Britain gain from the fact that William Shakespeare is undoubtedly the world’s best-known author?

The interview also looks at the power and reach of the BBC and the influence that confers on Great Britain. Paradoxically, in Britain, the BBC is often criticised and several British governments have been committed to emasculating it. Overseas, however, it has a reputation for integrity and accuracy. Indeed, in 1984, despite the fact his late mother’s government had reached out to him with the news, Rajiv Gandhi sought confirmation Indira Gandhi had died by tuning in to the BBC. This is recounted in the second volume of Pranab Mukherjee’s memoirs.

Finally, the interview discusses the incredible British sense of humour and the soft power influence that confers on Great Britain. Whether it’s Yes, Prime Minister, The Two Ronnies or Mr. Bean and, indeed, going all the way back to Laurel and Hardy, British humour has the capacity to make the whole world laugh. You can’t really say that of the French, the Germans, the Australians or even the Americans.

‘Crimson Spring’ Retells the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Through the Lives of ‘Non-Historical’ People

By telling the story through the lives of people who lost loved ones, through the lives of lawyers, saints, and rebels, Sarna weaves a tapestry to show how many threads were summarily burned away in that shooting.

Navtej Sarna’s latest novel, Crimson Spring, is part of a new – and deeper – trend of how we look at history. Traditionally, Indian history has been taught as that of rulers and their decisions. The key aspects are dates and decisions by well-known women and men. Not only is this an extremely boring way to see the past, it reduces the rest of the population to mere puppets. Moreover, it occludes the very specific thing – the physicality of the place, the uniqueness of the time – that made an event what it was.

Shahid Amin did this with aplomb in his masterful telling of the story of Chauri Chaura in Event, Metaphor, History; Abhishek Kaicker has done something similar in The King and the People, an erudite retelling of the history of Shahjahanabad to etch out the many things that led to Nadir Shah’s qatl-e-aam.

Unlike these books, Crimson Spring is fiction, but it sets out to do something very similar with the tragedy of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Udham Singh’s assassination of Michael O’Dwyer. Through the lives of people who lost loved ones, who were wounded, or otherwise affected; through the lives of lawyers, saints, and rebels, Sarna weaves a tapestry to show how many threads were summarily burned away in that shooting; how a map of Punjab was scored and torn; that this was not merely an incident in a city, but a larger happening that continues to reverberate in history.

Crimson Spring
Navtej Sarna
Aleph Book Company, 2022.

Sarna draws on a deep history of Punjab; of the irrigation department, the recruitment for the Great War, the Ghadar movement, and the Sikh revivalism that would go on to become the Akali movement and wrest the gurudwaras away from government-controlled lackeys.

He does this by telling the stories of the “non-historic” people – Ralla, the former drunken son of a moneylender-turned-saintly-wanderer; the idealistic young government pleader and son of a police inspector, Gurnam; Ralla’s nephew, Kirpal, returning from war in Europe; or Maya Dei, who had come with her husband to Amritsar in a bid to pray for a child at Harmandir Sahib. Some of these drive the core of the story forward – the way to the massacre for which Jallianwala Bagh is now known – but others are more of a story of Punjab as it was, and as it was becoming.

In doing so; in centring Punjab rather than the massacre, Sarna’s novel also highlights why the central characters are O’Dwyer and Udham Singh. The massacre was only part of the violence unleashed upon the province, and Reginald Dyer was – all done and told – a minor character, not the lead. The British Empire in India, after all, was not a military led enterprise, but a civilian administration.

The massacre; the obscene punishment of making everybody who lived on a street crawl on their belly if they were “natives”; the floggings and torture, were all sanctioned enterprises. Dyer may have ordered the firing, directed its aim, but the command responsibility rested with O’Dwyer, the man that Udham Singh was to assassinate.

Also read: Why Popular Local Memory of Jallianwala Bagh Doesn’t Fit the National Narrative

Of particular note is the character of Hugh Porter, the chief secretary of Punjab. In his Author’s Note, Sarna takes pains to note that the character in the novel is nothing like the historical chief secretary, who “felt none of the qualms and doubts about colonial excesses that Porter does”. The fictional character in the novel is a sober, steady man of experience who has personal loss in his history that seems to make him both more open and understanding. He realises that “Dyer had created a convenient duty for himself, a duty to kill ruthlessly, and O’Dwyer had egged him on and then patted him on the back.”

Porter realises all this, and also “that he would say no such thing even by implication when questioned by an inquiry committee… he would stay true to the civil service code, true to his oath of loyalty to the King and government.”

Possibly no other paragraph is as devastating in the novel than this one. It describes a system so corrupt that a good man – and Sarna is scrupulously fair in this, the British are no cardboard villains – can understand the absolute vileness of the system; one that will not only sanction mass murder, but applaud it, and consider that his loyalty to the system means covering it up. And this is a person that Sarna has imagined to be far kinder than the real one was.

Another – though less devastating because it is purely factual – blow to any sense of redemption of the system is the support that British women showered upon Reginald Dyer, seen as a hero who saved English womanhood from that most terrible of fates – being ravaged by a native. Feminist advocacy was far more effective as a handmaiden of empire than a bulwark against it.

Strangely enough, it is Udham Singh who is by far the most elusive character in the book. Like the real life person, the character is protean – many things from many angles. The name that he declared to the British authorities after assassinating O’Dwyer was Mohammed Singh Azad, one of the many he wore lightly, including Frank Brazil, or Ude Singh, or Sher Singh.

In a sense Udham Singh, an orphan and that too from a repressed caste, was not just one man, not just one impulse, but a character birthed by a complex, fluid, Punjab that, even when it was captured, was constantly reinventing itself. And maybe at the heart of Sarna’s evocative and complicated novel lies a very simple truth: that it is impossible to convince a product of a rich and proud land that the only name they can wear is slave, that one can die trying, and fail.

Omair Ahmad is an author. His last novel, Jimmy the Terrorist, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and won the Crossword Award. His last book was a political history of Bhutan and the eastern Himalayan region. He is concurrently the managing editor, South Asia, at The Third Pole. You can find him on Twitter at @omairtahmad.

Modi Government Has a Dismal Track Record on Absconding Billionaires

The status of cases against the likes of Vijay Mallya, arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and former IPL chief Lalit Modi is the same as theirs – lost in transit.

Note: This article was first published on September 5, 2017 and is being republished in the light of Vijay Mallya’s statement that he met finance minister Arun Jaitley before leaving India, and Jaitley’s confirmation of this meeting, which he said was fleeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often boasted about his ‘zero tolerance’ for corruption and his chief aide, BJP president Amit Shah, has claimed that no scams have happened on his saheb Modi’s watch.

But do billionaire absconders like Vijay Mallya, arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and former IPL chief Lalit Modi get “special handling”? And are the facts at par with the crackdown on corruption jumla?

Consider the following cases.

In December of last year, Bhandari, following in the footsteps of Mallya, managed to slip out of the country and is believed to be in London where Mallya is also based.

Authoritative sources confirmed that Mallya was tipped off about his imminent arrest by the ruling party, since after showing up in parliament in the Zero Hour, he left the country accompanied by his partner and masses of designer luggage in March last year. A senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) official described Mallya’s slipping away as “an assisted escape.”

On March 1, 2016, Mallya – who held a diplomatic passport by virtue of being a member of parliament – whizzed through immigration with ease and boarded the London-bound Jet Airways flight 9W-122 from New Delhi. He flew first class and had booked the entire cabin for himself and his companion. Mallya was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2010 as an independent candidate from Karnataka with the help of the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular).

He showed up at the release of a book by socialite Suhel Seth titled Mantras for Success: India’s Greatest CEOs Tell You How to Win on June 16, 2016, in London’s South Asia Centre of the London School of Economics, and tried to accost Navtej Sarna, the then high commissioner of India to the UK, causing him huge embarrassment.

Sarna left the event after spotting Seth. After I wrote on the subject, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, was forced to issue a clarification that Sarna had left the venue after seeing Mallya. Attempts were made to pretend that Mallaya had “gate crashed” the event “uninvited”. This came to naught and did not spare the government any blushes as it was angrily denied by Mallya himself who said on Twitter that he had gone to the event because he was “invited”.

A similar situation unfolded with Bhandari, who is considered the best networked arms dealer in the country had a host of top-level connections, including those with a senior editor of one of Delhi’s largest newspapers. The Income Tax authorities discovered that the editor, known to be exceptionally close to the current establishment in the BJP, had exchanged 500 calls with Bhandari when the Augusta deal was being negotiated.

Interestingly, despite requests from the Income Tax (IT) department, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Intelligence Bureau, which asked Delhi police to register a case under Sections 3 and 5 of the Officials Secrets Act after classified papers of the defence ministry were found during a raid at Bhandari’s residence in April 2016, the case doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Bhandari was allegedly linked to Robert Vadra – the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi – after IT sleuths found an email trail linking the two. Vadra, via his lawyers, has denied these claims. The ED attached Rs 21 crores of Bhandari’s assets in June this year under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, however, the government does not have answers to Bhandari whereabouts and its plans to bring him back. The circumstances under which he fled are themselves circumstances with sources telling the New Indian Express in December 2016:

Sources said Bhandari was always a step ahead of law enforcement agencies owing to his deep bureaucratic and political network and he must have been tipped off about his imminent arrest. “The cops wanted him. The enforcement agencies, including I-T department and Enforcement Directorate were probing into his companies allegedly involved in round-tripping of slush funds. But, despite multi-agencies’ eyes on him, Bhandari proved to be well advised and fled without leaving any trace,” the sources said.

According to a senior official, “Bhandari is the key link to the biggest political players in India. We need to be serious to ensure his return as he was a cross-party player. So far, the government has only allowed us to touch the tip of the iceberg.”

Despite the editor being outed publicly with his phone records, the newspaper has taken no action against him. Both Bhandari and Mallya seemed to be privy to planned official action against them as Mallya had got to know that senior counsel Dushyant Dave on February 28, 2016, had advised the State Bank of India (SBI) to ask the courts to retrain Mallya from leaving.

Curiously, the SBI took its time to act but Mallya did not. The CBI also told the Supreme Court that it had “downgraded” its lookout notice against Mallya from him being stopped at airports to immigration authorities “merely informing the CBI of the fact that he had taken a flight.”

The original lookout notice for Mallya was issued on October 16, 2015. This was surprisingly amended a month later on November 24, 2015. Why it was modified remains a mystery to this day.

The NDA government is clearly very kind to billionaire absconders. Earlier, in June 2015, it became known that Swaraj had helped procure IPL czar Lalit’s travel papers after his passport was cancelled. She said that she had helped him on “humanitarian grounds”.

Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan chief minister, had given a “witness statement” in favour of her friend Lalit. Currently the ED is investigating 16 cases against him and has issued show cause notices in 15 cases.

So while the billionaires continue to abscond, the status of the cases against them is the same as their status – lost in transit.

Swati Chaturvedi is a senior journalist and author based in Delhi. She tweets at @bainjal.

Indian-Americans Honour Man Who Intervened in Kansas Shooting

Houston’s Indian-American community raised $100,000 to help Ian Grillot buy a house in his hometown, Kansas.

India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna hands over to Ian Grillot a cheque of $100,000 raised by the Indian American community at the 14th annual gala of India House Houston on Sunday. Credit: PTI

Houston, US: A young American who took a bullet while trying to save two Indians has been honoured as ‘a true American hero’ by Houston’s Indian-American community, which raised $100,000 to help him buy a house in his hometown Kansas.

“On behalf of the Indian-American community in Houston, India House recognised this selfless act beyond the call of duty and has extended the community’s gratitude to Ian Grillot by helping him to buy a house,” said a statement posted on the India House Houston Facebook page.

India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna handed over the cheque to Grillot, who was honoured at the 14th annual gala of India House Houston.

Grillot, 24, was injured when he tried to grab a Kansas gunman – 51-year-old navy veteran Adam Purinton – who shot at two Indians last month at a bar-cum-grill in Olathe, Kansas. Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and his colleague Alok Madasani was critically injured in the shooting.

India House, a community centre built by Americans of Indian origin in the Greater Houston area, raised the $100,000 as part of an initiative supported by Anupam Ray, India’s consul-general in Houston, to help Grillot buy a house in his hometown, the Facebook statement said.

Grillot said it was a powerful message. “I don’t know if I could’ve lived with myself if I wouldn’t have stopped or attempted to stop the shooter because that would’ve been completely devastating,” he said.

“I do now have a very powerful message and if I can help empower people and spread hope and love, then why not? I am honoured to be at India House that serves so many families from so many communities in the Houston area.”

Sarna said it was a “great privilege” to meet Grillot and his parents. “I was keen to come here today because I was told that Ian Grillot will be honoured… He is a young man who has shown exceptional courage, strength of very fundamental human values. No amount of honour that India or the Indian Americans bestow on him will be enough for that moment of exceptional fortitude and character,” Sarna added.

Ray said the vibrant Indian diaspora in America has always contributed towards the society and economy of the US. “They are the ambassadors of Indian culture. They are playing a vital role in strengthening the ties between the two nations and cultures.”

Popular Indian chef Vikas Khanna, another guest of honour at the event, spoke about his experience as an immigrant and the struggles immigrants go through.

“When they give up everything familiar behind and come to a new land, like an alien, you come as a no person here, you have so much faith in this country that you give everything to it, but still you get bullied. But then there are people like Ian Grillot, who… give you hope and courage to follow your dream,” Khanna said.

“It is not every day that one meets a genuine hero – a person who risks his life for another, and takes a bullet for a complete stranger. Ian Grillot is a man who reminds us of the promise of America and its greatness,” said Jiten Agarwal, a prominent Houstonian and Chair of the annual gala.

Nisha D. Biswal, former assistant secretary of state for South/Central Asia, recalled the “very distinct honour of serving in the Obama administration”. Biswal said it was a “particularly wonderful experience” for someone who was “born in India and emigrated to US at the age of five. “I am living the American dream,” Biswal added.

US Assures ‘Speedy’ Justice For Indian-American Hate Crime Victims

India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna reached out to the state department to convey his “deep concerns” to the government about recent tragic incidents.

Adam Purinton, 51, accused of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding Alok Madasani, 32, as well as an American who tried to intervene, appears with his public defender Michelle R. Durrett (R) via video conference from jail during his initial court appearance in Olathe, Kansas, US, February 27, 2017. Credit: Jill Toyoshiba/Reuters

The US on Monday assured India of “speedy justice” to the Indian-American victims of hate-related crimes. India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna reached out to the state department to convey his “deep concerns” to the government on the recent tragic incidents involving Harnish Patel and Deep Rai.

“State Department, on behalf of the US government, expressed condolences and assured they are working with all agencies concerned to ensure speedy justice,” the Indian Embassy in the US said in a series of tweets.

Amb @NavtejSarna convyd r deep concerns to US Gov on recent tragic incidents involving Hardish Patel & Deep Rai1/4 @MEAIndia @SushmaSwaraj

— India in USA (@IndianEmbassyUS) March 5, 2017

Amb @NavtejSarna underlined need to prevent such incidents and protect Indian community 2/4 @MEAIndia @SushmaSwaraj

— India in USA (@IndianEmbassyUS) March 5, 2017

State Department, on behalf of US Govt, expressed condolences and assured they are working 3/4 @NavtejSarna @MEAIndia @SushmaSwaraj

— India in USA (@IndianEmbassyUS) March 5, 2017

with all agencies concerned to ensure speedy justice. 4/4 @NavtejSarna @MEAIndia @SushmaSwaraj

— India in USA (@IndianEmbassyUS) March 5, 2017

Patel, 43, an owner of a convenience store in Lancaster County, South Carolina, was found dead of gunshot wounds in his home on Thursday. Rai, 39-year-old Sikh, had been shot outside his home by a partially-masked gunman who shouted “go back to your own country.”.

Sarna also “underlined” the need to prevent such incidents and protect the Indian community. Indian embassy officials are in constant communication with local police officials in both the cases, he said.

“We will remain in touch with them,” an Indian embassy source said.

Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed on February 22 by a navy veteran who opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani, yelling “get out of my country”.

FBI joins probe

The FBI has joined the investigation into the shooting of Rai, a US national of Indian origin. “The Seattle FBI is assisting the Kent Police Department through a joint investigation of the shooting incident. The FBI remains committed to investigating crimes that are potentially hate-motivated and we continue to work with all our community partners in the Seattle area,” FBI Seattle spokesperson Ayn Dietrich said.

Indian Envoy Navtej Sarna Meets Trump in Oval Office

This was the first meeting of the top Indian diplomat with Trump after he was sworn in as the US President on January 20.

Narendra Modi, James Michel, Navtej Sama, Joel Morgan, March 2015. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Washington: India’s envoy to the US Navtej Sarna met Donald Trump at the Oval Office of the White House here for the first time since the Republican leader’s inauguration as the US president.

Trump met all the new foreign ambassadors, including Sarna, yesterday and had individual photos with them.

This was the first meeting of the top Indian diplomat with Trump after he was sworn in on January 20.

A 1980 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Sarna arrived in the US a few days before the November 8 presidential elections.

Post-elections, Sarna and a few other foreign diplomats could not meet the then US President Barack Obama during the transition of power at the White House.

Before leaving the office, Obama had issued an executive order formally credentialing all the new ambassadors, including Sarna, so as to facilitate them to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Trump.

Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs from 2002 to 2008, Sarna has previously been India’s ambassador to Israel and the Indian high commissioner to the UK.

Since arriving in the US, Sarna has met scores of top US lawmakers, engaged the community across the country and interacted with the think-tanks.

Yesterday, he hosted a reception for National Governors Association that was attended by governors from 25 states.

(PTI)

Indian Shot Dead in Kansas City in Hate Crime

The shooter reportedly got into an argument with the victims in a racist tone, and shouted “get out of my country” and “terrorist” before shooting them.

Srinivas Kuchibotla. Credit: Twitter

Houston/Washington: An Indian engineer was killed and two others were injured after an American man yelling “get out of my country” opened fire on them in a crowded bar in Kansas City in an apparent hate crime incident.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32), who was working at GPS-maker Garmin headquarters in Olathe, was killed while another Indian man and his colleague Alok Madasani was critically injured after a 51-year-old navy veteran started shooting and hurling racial slurs following an altercation on Wednesday night.

A third person, an American man identified as Ian Grillot who tried to intervene also received injuries in the firing in Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe.

The shooter, Adam Purinton, reportedly got into an argument with the victims in a racist tone, and shouted “get out of my country” and “terrorist” before shooting them.

The shooter reportedly provoked them into an argument asking their presence and work in his country, and how they were better than him.

According to the police, Purinton left the bar after the argument and then returned with a gun and shot the three men while patrons were watching the University of Kansas-TCU basketball game on television in the bar.

The shooter was arrested on Thursday morning, five hours after the incident and charged with murder and attempted murder.

Authorities declined at a news conference to say whether the shooting was a hate crime although local police said they were working with the FBI to investigate the case.

“It was a tragic and senseless act of violence,” Olathe police chief Steven Menke told reporters.

In New Delhi, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj expressed shock over the incident and said that two Indian embassy officials have been rushed to Kansas to render all possible assistance.

“I am shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas in which Srinivas Kuchibhotla has been killed. My heartfelt condolences to bereaved family,” she tweeted.

“I have spoken to Indian ambassador in US Mr Navtej Sarna. He informed me that two Indian embassy officials have rushed to Kansas,” she said.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said Kuchibhotla and Madasani hailed from Hyderabad and Warangal, and were working at Garmin in Olathe (Kansas).

“The Indian embassy officials will meet the injured and facilitate in bringing the mortal remains of the deceased and will be in touch with local police officials to ascertain more details of the incident and monitor follow up action. They will also meet the community members in Kansas,” Swarup said.

According to Garmin, Kuchibhotla and Madasani worked in the company’s aviation systems.

“We’re saddened that two Garmin associates were involved in Wednesday night’s incident, and we express our condolences to the family and friends of our co-workers involved. Garmin will have grievance counsellors on-site and available for its associates today and tomorrow,” Garmin said in a statement.

(PTI)

Navtej Sarna to Serve as Ambassador to the US

The newly appointed Sarna will have to engage with a new administration in Washington, following the November 8 presidential poll.

Navtej Sarna. Credit: PTI

New Delhi: India’s high commissioner to UK, Navtej Sarna, was appointed as ambassador to the US today, a high-profile posting where he will face the task of engaging with a new administration in Washington following the November 8 presidential poll.

Sarna, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1980 batch, was serving as secretary (West), in the Ministry of External Affairs before he was posted in London in January. He will succeed Arun Singh, who is due for retirement.

The 59-year-old diplomat was among the longest-serving spokespersons of the MEA. He had held the post between 2002 and 2008.

“He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” the external affairs ministry said.

The government has also appointed IFS officer Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the next high commissioner of India to Sri Lanka. He will replace Yash Sinha.

In Washington, Sarna’s main task will be to ensure the continuity in Indo-US relations when a new dispensation takes charge.

Sarna has authored many fiction and non-fiction books, with the most recent being Second Thoughts: On Books, Authors and the Writerly Life which was released last year. He was also India’s ambassador to Israel from 2008 to 2012.

Sarna had served at various Indian missions including in Moscow, Warsaw, Tehran, Geneva, Thimphu and Washington.

For two years, from August 2012, Sarna had served as additional secretary in-charge of international organisations in the MEA. Born on December 2, 1957, Sarna is due to retire from the IFS at the end of November 2017.

Yash Sinha, who is tipped to be the Indian high commissioner to the UK, is a seasoned diplomat and in a career spanning 35 years, he has handled several important assignments at the MEA, as well as in Indian diplomatic missions to South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America.

‘Queen Victoria, the Receiver of Stolen Goods. Stolen Kingdoms, Stolen Jewels’

In this excerpt from The Exile, Navtej Sarna recovers the voice of Maharaja Duleep Singh as he tells the story of his last encounter with the Koh-i-noor – the diamond which once belonged to him and which he insisted till the very end had been stolen by the British.

Navtej Sarna’s The Exile: A Novel Based on the Life of Maharaj Duleep Singh is an extraordinary book, a work of history that uses the narrative structure of fiction to recreate a tragic story of conquest and betrayal out of fragmented, scattered scraps of letters, official records, memoirs and contemporary accounts.

Published in 2008, it tells the story of the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, whose death in 1839 set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to the British conquest of the Punjab.

Duleep Singh ascended the throne in 1843 at the age of five. Four years later, the British annexed Punjab, carting away its riches – including the famed Koh-i-noor diamond – to London. In 1854, Duleep, who was now 16, was exiled to the England, never to return to Punjab though he was allowed two brief and tightly regulated visits to India. He died in 1893 in Paris.

“If one had to reach for the edges of Duleep Singh’s story,” Sarna wrote in his introduction, “then the answer, to my mind, lay in pushing available facts towards the realm of fiction, but pushing them gently, so as not to distort them.”

In the following excerpt, Sarna recovers the voice of the exiled maharaja as he tells the story, just before his death, of the one encounter he was granted with the diamond that once belonged to him and which he insisted till the very end had been stolen by the British Raj.

Mrs Fagin.

That is what I once called Queen Victoria. The biggest pickpocket of them all. The receiver of stolen goods. Stolen kingdoms, stolen jewels.

Smuggled away to her by her loyal viceroys, men like Dalhousie, with immaculate records and long panegyrics. The thousands of pearls and emeralds and rubies and diamonds taken from my toshakhana and presented to her by the East India Company after the Great Exhibition of 1851. To be locked away in the Tower of London, stuck in her tiara, sewn on her dresses.

That’s how she received the Koh-i-noor. Dalhousie tucked it away into a chamois bag especially made by his wife, which was then sewn into his belt by Login.

Today it matters little to me whether I have it or not. If I had it who knows what I might do with it. Perhaps I would trade it for a few sunny days, a few happy conversations, some justice, a fair enquiry into my case, and certainly for a journey to Punjab. Or just throw it into the river for all that it has done for me. But as a child, I used to yearn for it. Especially when the courtiers would set up durbar in Fattehgarh and talk of the lost glory of Lahore.

I did see the near-mythical stone once in my years of exile; I even held it in my hand for a few moments. It happened on an evening in Buckingham Palace, soon after my arrival in England. The Queen was very fond of me those days and I must admit so was I, of her and her family. She was having my portrait painted by that artist Winterhalter. The man did a good job. He made me look tall and handsome, like a real prince. He was used to painting European royalty and I suppose he knew how to massage egos, even the ego of a Maharaja without a throne. He said I would ‘grow into the picture’. I never was to grow that tall but I hope people will remember me like he made me look, and not how I actually have become, bald and fat.

He would make me pose two hours at a time in the White Drawing Room of the palace. The Queen would come in just to watch me, every inch her loyal subject, with her portrait set in diamonds around my neck and her miniature picture in a ring on my finger.

Yes, she had reason to be fond of me those days. I was such a great addition to her banquets; a fine specimen to show off to the
rest of society. A young oriental king who spoke English and, to top it all, was Christian. I also said things that must have eased her conscience. I would tell her that I was glad to be in England, far away from the violent ways of my people. I even told her, on a ferry ride to the Isle of Wight, that I had become a Christian because of my own beliefs, that I had broken caste by having tea with Tommy Scott and by drinking from the same glass as Lady Login in front of Rani Dukhno. I exculpated everybody—Dalhousie, Login, Lady Login, even Bhajan Lal from having anything to do with my change of faith and took it all upon myself.

Is one still a child at sixteen, to be forgiven such complete surrender to manipulation . . .?

But I was talking of the Koh-i-noor and the days of the Winterhalter portrait.

One of those mornings, Lady Login and I were riding in Richmond Park when she turned towards me suddenly. ‘Maharaja, have you ever thought of seeing the Koh-i-noor again?’

A prickly excitement ran through me. For a moment, I thought that everything was turning out all right. The coming to England,becoming a good Christian and everything else had been worth it, that I was being rewarded for my good behaviour. Maybe not just the diamond but all else that it implied would be given back to me. But I kept the excitement out of my voice as I wheeled my horse back at the far end of the park.

‘Yes, Lady Login, I would very much like to see the Koh-i-noor again,’ was all I said.

I was still not prepared for what happened a few evenings after that conversation. I was standing very still for Winterhalter. All of a sudden the curtains parted and four tall beefeaters in full dress down to their sabres entered the room. An official stood timidly between them, holding a large box. From the corner of my eye, I saw Her Majesty walk quickly to the official and open the box. She held it and for a moment both she and the Prince Consort stared quietly at whatever it was inside the box. Then she called me. ‘Maharaja! I have something to show you.’

I stepped off the dais and walked quickly to her.

She held out the open box towards me.

‘The Koh-i-noor, Maharaja. I understand that you had wanted to see it.’

I looked again at the magical diamond that had been mine, that had meant so much to me, my father, my beautiful, fiery mother, my people. It seemed much smaller than I remembered it.

‘I have had it cut, Maharaja, by the best cutters available. It shines better now.’

She picked it out of the box and put it in my palm. I took it between my thumb and forefinger and held it up to the light. I could not look away from the quiet dazzle. I stood staring at it near the open window and a rush of emotions began to drown me. I realized I had lost everything, I was no longer a king. I was only being made to dress up like one and amuse the Queen’s court. I was angry, angry enough to want to fling the diamond in the lawns below. I was sad. I was demeaned. What did Her Majesty want me to do? To kneel down and thank her for showing me what in fact belonged to me?

When the rush in my blood subsided I knew what I wanted to do. I would make it clear that the Koh-i-noor was mine by right. So far, it had been stolen from me. Now I would gift it to her.

I walked back from the window to Her Majesty.

Handing the box with the diamond back to her I said:‘It is to me, Ma’am, the greatest pleasure thus to have the opportunity of myself tendering to my Sovereign the Koh-i-noor.’

I do not think she understood how I had felt. I do not think she cared enough. For her it was only a passing whim, a show of preposterous royal magnanimity, or a fitting show of loyalty.

But how does it matter now, all this business of so long ago?

Extracted from Navtej Sarna, The Exile: A Novel Based on the Life of Maharaj Duleep Singh (Penguin, 2008)