Sometime in 1978, I was summoned by Pascal Alan Nazareth, then deputy high commissioner (DHC) for India, in the United Kingdom, to express his unhappiness about a piece, I had written for the wire service United News of India (UNI), which was widely carried by the Indian press and therefore resulted in negative publicity for Indian authorities, including the then prime minister, Morarji Desai.

The story had to do with the impending closure of the Indian government-run, highly subsidized Indian Students’ Hostel in the London University district. There had typically been corruption and incompetence in the management of the facility. I had discharged my duties as a journalist, and DHC Nazareth had done his as a diplomat representing his country.  

Nazareth does not refer to the foregoing in his just-published autobiography A Ringside Seat to History; but much of the penned memories of his stint in London is for an old-timer like me a refreshing trip down memory lane.

He was initially minister in-charge of the Supply Mission at the high commission – which used to be the key to India purchasing spare parts for its defence hardware and needed overhauling – before being appointed DHC after the Desai government transferred K Natwar Singh to Zambia.

The high commissioner was B K Nehru of the distinguished Indian Civil Service and a relative of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. However, he had observed a studied silence on her controversial imposition of a state of emergency in 1975-77; whereas Natwar Singh, a career diplomat, had stuck his neck out to defend the move. At the same time, when Natwar Singh was ordered to relocate forthwith, Nehru, according to Nazareth’s book, “sent a telegram to FS (foreign secretary) stating that he would not permit his DHC to be publicly humiliated. He urged that he be given 30 days to make his farewell calls and host a farewell reception. FS, consulted PM (Desai), and agreed to this”.

A banter between Desai and Nehru at the time also illustrates the stature and backbone of Indian diplomats in that era. After the former became prime minister, the latter wrote to him as follows: “Dear Prime Minister, Please accept my hearty congratulations on your assumption of this high office. I wish you much success in it. As you undoubtedly intend to dismiss me I have decided to pre-empt this by submitting my resignation, which please accept.”y

The PM replied: “Dear Biju bhai, of course I intend to dismiss you but will not permit you to pre-empt me on this. You will stay at your post until you hear from me.” He informed him that he intended to stay with him during his visit to London for the Commonwealth Summit. He added: “Keep in mind that no liquor is to be served during my stay!”

The High Commissioner responded: “I will ensure all liquor is securely put away. However, as you are an early riser, I have to request your gracious understanding on my inability to be with you before 9 am each day. I have also requested the Almighty not to summon me before that hour!” During that prime ministerial trip Commonwealth Heads of Government signed the Gleneagles Agreement, which historically disbarred sporting links with apartheid South Africa. 

Less significantly, Nazareth recounts: “Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s return visit was made in July 1978. Among those who accompanied him was his son Kanti. I witnessed with amazement the respectful attention senior British Defence Ministry officials paid him, and the separate huddles they had now and again secretary to PM.” He then records: “In mid-October 1978, when I was AHC (acting high commissioner) again, I received a telephone call from PMO instructing me to convey to ‘Prime Minister Callaghan personally’ that Government Of India had decided to purchase the Jaguar fighter aircraft despite stiff competition from its rivals.” He duly communicated the message. “He (Callaghan) said he was delighted to receive it and requested me to convey his grateful thanks to PM Desai for conveying this to him ‘personally and promptly’.” The Jaguar deal was a $2.2 billion contract for 200 fighter planes for the Indian Air Force. The eye-witness description of Kanti Desai’s pow-wows with British defence officials, if anything, confirms his wheeler-dealer reputation.

Nazareth’s was a memorable initiation into the service. In 1959, when he and his batch-mates were making a customary call on Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the commencement of their careers, the then Foreign Secretary, Subimal Dutt, suddenly entered the room to whisper something into his ears. Nehru revealed the Dalai Lama, escaping from Tibet (which had earlier been annexed by China) had safely crossed the border into India. The PM then turned to Dutt to say: “These young officers will be dealing with the consequences of today!” Indeed, Indian diplomats still are, given the current standoff with Chinese troops in Ladakh.

Nazareth’s professional voyage included postings in Tokyo (where Air Chief Marshall Subroto Mukherjee tragically died after food got stuck in his throat at a dinner); Rangoon (during ill-treatment of Indians by the Burmese military junta, but when Indira Gandhi as Information and Broadcasting minister took to a swimsuit to wade into the sea while visiting and Prime Minister Shastri, who had acquired mantle of “The sparrow with a spine of steel” after the 1965 Indo-Pak war, also undertook a trip); New York (which became a staging post for him to valiantly but unsuccessfully track down one of the original Indian fraudsters and absconders, shipping magnate Dharma Teja, in Costa Rica (he was finally extradited after being arrested in London in 1970]; Lima (as charge d’affairs when he was deputed the take care of the Indian delegation at UNCTAD III in Santiago, following which the Chilean president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a CIA coup d’etat; Accra (where there were two coups (the second suspected of being instigated by the British and Germans) during his term as high commissioner); and Chicago and New York as consul-general.

At the last-mentioned assignment, he, to his credit, refused to authenticate documents to falsely implicate V P Singh, later to become prime minister, and his son for opening a bank account in St Kitts. As ambassador in Cairo, he scuttled a Pakistani move to raise Kashmir at the Organisation of Islamic Countries conference. His final responsibility was as head of mission in Mexico City.

In his foreword to the book, erstwhile foreign secretary M K Rasgotra, compliments him for his enterprise as director-general of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations by saying: “Within a few months Nazareth transformed the ICCR into a powerful and dynamic organization.” He successfully pulled off the ambitious festivals of India in Britain and the United States in 1982 and 1985 respectively.   

Though we live in a world of the Right to Information Act, nothing can compare with a diplomat's diary. Nazareth has provided just that. I hope readers will find it as invigorating as I did as a self-confessed addict of international affairs.

(The reviewer is a London-based veteran journalist)