Engaging Qatar
Govt deputes top officers to save 8 navy men
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trusted diplomat Deepak Mittal is spearheading India’s efforts to help eight former Indian Navy personnel, who have been awarded death sentence by a court in Qatar. Mittal, a 1998 batch IFS officer, has served in Qatar as India’s ambassador for two years and was in Doha when the eight Indians were picked up by the Qatari intelligence agency in August last year. He left Qatar soon after the arrests and is currently serving as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Office. Mittal is known to be adept at handling sensitive assignments.
He led India’s first formal diplomatic engagement with the Taliban regime and was also part of the team that defended Kulbhushan Jadhav at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Mittal is being guided on the Qatar issue by external affairs minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The charges against the eight arrested Indians have not been revealed by the Qatari and Indian authorities. Media reports have, however, suggested that they have been charged with spying for Israel and passing it sensitive information on Qatar’s top secret defence projects.
Mittal will now engage with the Qatari leadership to seek their release. According to sources, the strategy is two-fold – provide legal assistance for appeal in the higher court and approach the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, for a pardon. Qatar’s Emir has the power to pardon or commute a sentence. He uses this power to release prisoners every year on Qatar’s National Day on December 18. South Block expects leniency from the Emir in the light of close economic relations between the two countries with India importing almost half of its requirement of liquefied natural gas from Qatar.
Desert Storm
PCC vs party publicist battle reaches AICC
The acrimony between Rajasthan state Congress unit and DesignBoxed, a private company handling party’s publicity for the ongoing assembly elections, has reached the Congress headquarter in New Delhi. A complaint has been lodged with the party’s top leadership that DesignBoxed has been focusing only on Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his government’s schemes, and not giving enough space on posters, hoardings and other publicity material to the Congress central leaders.
The central leadership has also been informed that the company has kept the state unit completely in the dark about the publicity plan and strategy. There are reports that Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra had a heated exchange with the DesignBoxed owner Naresh Arora in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the state Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa over the campaign strategy. Dotasra later told mediapersons that private companies were hired to assist the party in its campaign. They cannot dictate the party, he said, and added that if these companies knew everything they would have formed their own government. The AICC will take a call on the extent of the company’s involvement in the party’s campaign.