The Hindu Business Line : A copybook diplomat

A QUINTESSENTIAL diplomat, Jyotindra Nath Dixit, headed the national brains-trust in its formulation of security, foreign policy and strategic relations with the rest of the world. New Delhi had his wise counsel on a variety of issues, but barely for six months after he was made the National Security Adviser. Dixit died at 67, much before his task was over. An authority on South Asia, Dixit headed the Indian mission in Dhaka immediately after the creation of Bangladesh, then moved to Islamabad and Colombo.

A seasoned Sri Lanka hand, Mani Dixit, as he was known to friends and journalists, was India's High Commissioner to Colombo in the late 1980s when the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed. His diplomatic career of about four decades culminated in his appointment as India's Foreign Secretary in the early 1990s.

A brilliant strategist, Dixit was known as the "copybook diplomat". But that did not deter him from finding "out-of-the-box" solutions. His erudition that came from a liberal education was quite evident in his speeches and briefings. His final briefing was on the year-end killer Tsunami. After his retirement, Dixit wrote a few books and a number of well-informed articles on foreign affairs. Then he joined the Congress and was associated with the party's foreign affairs cell. He was chiefly responsible for the drafting the party's pre-poll paper on foreign policy, Defence and national security.

I had the benefit of a briefs meeting with him at the President, Mr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's Independence Day "At Home" at Rashtrapati Bhavan's Mogul Gardens last August. After a brief chat, I requested for a formal interview But he politely refused, saying, "My lips are sealed, you know. You are welcome anytime for informal, off-the record chat".

A clear thinker, Dixit had a decided view on India's position vis-à-vis the Sri Lankan problem and a possible solution. Unable to attend a conference on Sri Lanka organised by Dr Subramanian Swamy in New Delhi at end October, Dixit wrote to Dr Swamy, brilliantly briefing India's stand.

He wrote: "... India is opposed to violence by the LTTE to resolve the ethnic problem. India is equally opposed to punitive action by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces against the Sri Lankan Tamil . India is supportive of the dialogue between Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE facilitated by the Norwegians... however the LTTE should indicate the final contours of the solution they have in mind before the Sri Lankan Government agrees to interim arrangement of devolution of power... The final solution should not affect the territorial unity and constitutional cohesion of Sri Lankan polity."

Surely, India will sorely miss his wise counsel and reassuring presence.

(The author, a former Deputy Editor of PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist.)

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