Taranjit Sandhu likely to be India’s ambassador to US
WASHINGTON: Taranjit Singh Sandhu, a veteran of India-US ties with decades of on-and-off experience dealing with it, is expected to be named shortly as India’s ambassador to Washington DC, according to people familiar with the matter. He will succeed Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a batch mate and college hockey teammate from St Stephen’s.
Shringla left Washington DC this week to start as the new foreign secretary in New Delhi and Sandhu will arrive here from Sri Lanka, where he, as ambassador, is credited with putting India back in the reckoning as the island nation’s most important partner, elbowing out the aggressive Chinese.
An announcement is expected as soon as the process is over for the appointment of diplomats, according to people familiar with the ongoing discussions about a bunch of upcoming ambassadorial postings in the pipeline, to Kathmandu and Paris, for instance, both of which are key capitals for India. On Tuesday, HT first reported that Jawed Ashraf will be India’s next ambassador to France, and Vinay Kwatra, Nepal.
Washington DC has been abuzz with speculation about the next ambassador from the time Shringla was named the foreign secretary in December end, after the conclusion of a highly successful second round of the 2+2
India-US ministerial dialogue, which was capped by a rare protocol-busting call-on meeting for Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with President Donald Trump at the White House. Minister Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Shringla and Ambassador Sandhu are all from St Stephen’s College in Delhi.
Sandhu’s long and in-the-ring experience of dealing with the relationship spanning decades across two previous postings here made him a popular choice for the person Washington DC most wanted to see and receive as the next ambassador, among think-tankers, past and present congressional aides of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and officials, many of whom he worked with and with whom he struck lasting relationships.
A former congressional aide who went on to hold senior administration position recalled working with Sandhu from his first stint in DC as a political officer at the Indian embassy in the late 1990s.
“Among other things, Taranjit grew to understand the Hill the best, with his ability to work with both parties,” the person said, referring to Capitol Hill, home to US Congress.
That was probably the most turbulent period in the India-US relationship, rocked by the 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests conducted by the Vajpayee government and the resulting shock and outrage felt in several capitals around the world, and in DC. The United States followed that up with severe sanctions.
Led by then Indian ambassador, the very politically astute Naresh Chandra, a former cabinet secretary and the last Indian Administrative Service officer to head the Indian mission (all others have been diplomats from the Indian Foreign Service such as Jaishankar, Shringla and, soon, Sandhu), Sandhu was part of the team that dealt with the outrage and quietly worked to unravel the sanctions — he was handling the toughest elements among the Americans, the Hill, which called for and slapped crippling sanctions that remained in force for years, with diminishing scope and coverage.
But the crisis was also an opportunity, founding as it did the current and on-going warming of ties marked by President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in 2000 and by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to the US later that year.
Dealing with the Hill also included the task of keeping at bay Dan Burton, a member of the House of Representatives who tried repeatedly to “punish” India for, what he considered unsatisfactory actions on human rights.
“Burton amendments”, as his legislative efforts came to be called, were stymied repeatedly, and he meekly withdrew his last attempt in 1999, rather than face a humiliating defeat in a floor vote. Indian lobbying efforts, using the India Caucus played a critical role.