When Pakistan failed to get support during 1999 Kargil conflict

NEW DELHI: The role played by US President Bill Clinton in helping end the Kargil conflict is well documented but what isn’t is Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to get the US to back its position — which flopped. In a new book, Life in American Politics & Diplomatic Years in India published by HarAnand Publications, Richard Celeste, the US ambassador to India between 1997 and 2001, reports a visit he received from Pakistan’s Ambassador to India,

Ashraf Qazi.

“He was seeking our help to persuade the Indians to ‘cease their aggressive actions in Kargil.’ I pointed out that the Indians had held these posts for some time. Ashraf repeated the claim that civilian ‘freedom fighters’ had occupied the positions. ‘Ashraf,’ I said, ‘I’m going to let you tell me what your government wants you to tell me. But I know that it is not true and I am embarrassed for your sake. I’m your friend so I’m going to be honest with you. We know who trained and equipped those troops and we know how they are being supplied and directed. Our government cannot accept your plea’,” Celeste writes.

He goes on to add how, in a meeting with Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif shortly after this, Clinton asked him to “withdraw troops” from Kargil. Then came a call from the US president to Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, “That call from Clinton to Vajpayee was without precedent in Indo-US relations,’’ the former ambassador writes. Indeed, some experts mark it as a key turning point in India’s relations with the US. Celeste’s book is slated to be formally launched in September.

The most interesting bit in the book, though, has nothing to do with US politicians. It involves one from the USSR.

In 1967, Stalin’s daughter Svetlana landed up at the US embassy in India unannounced. She was the common law wife of an Indian, Brajesh Singh, an uncle of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s aide Dinesh Singh. She told the Americans that she’d come to India to immerse Singh’s ashes but also wanted asylum in the US.

The vegetarian Stalin told the Americans she wanted to defect to the US because the Russian ambassador had invited her to lunch, served ham, and then abused her for turning vegetarian.

The Americans decided to buy her a ticket to Rome because Ambassador Bowles, Celeste’s boss, said it would be un-American to turn a woman down. It was only when she reached Rome that the news leaked and the Russians wanted to know how India allowed Stalin’s daughter to be “kidnapped’’. Celeste writes that Indira Gandhi had to send her principal secretary LK Jha to meet Svetlana and convince her to go back to Moscow. When she refused to budge, he had to travel to Moscow to mollify the Russians.

IN HIS BOOK, RICHARD CELESTE, US ENVOY TO INDIA BETWEEN 1997 AND 2001, REPORTS A VISIT BY PAK AMBASSADOR TO INDIA, SEEKING U.S. SUPPORT