Freezing Foreign Jaunt Miffs MEA Mandarins
NEW DELHI: South Block is miffed. Finance ministry’s latest missive on cross-cutting measures to restrict the foreign travel of babus could have an impact on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)’s ability to manage VVIP visits abroad successfully.
Consider this: When President or Prime Minister travels on an official visit, the Indian mission doesn’t often have enough people to deal with all aspects of travel—from political content to security and logistics. Indian diplomats from other missions are always roped in to ensure a smooth, trouble-free state visit. But the finance ministry has not only put an end to that, but has also poached into MEA’s turf by giving cabinet secretary the jurisdiction to make decisions on Indian missions.
As per sources, the MEA has taken up the matter strongly with the finance ministry for a reversal of these provisions.
In early January, Finance Ministry’s department of expenditure issued an office memorandum with subject line: “instructions for processing foreign visits of officers of the Government of India for approval of Screening Committee of Secretaries”. It listed 25 guidelines.
On the second page, guideline No 8 have led to the MEA officials seeing akin to a red rag being waved before a bull. The notice issued to all secretaries of GOI said that “the practice of mobilisation of personnel by the host Mission from other Missions situated in other countries should not be resorted to.” The next line added fuel to the fire. “For any exceptional requirements, prior approval of the Cabinet Secretary should be obtained”.
As per the officials, this means that MEA will not even have jurisdiction to decide on its own on how to deploy manpower to manage state visits, or for big multilateral events. So far, this had been the exclusive sphere influence of foreign secretary.
The outrage in the corridors of the South Block was not surprising. The detailed planning of foreign visits is a specialised job of the MEA. As angry officials in South Block pointed out, it was difficult to conceive how the cabinet secretary will understand how foreign visits are minutely planned—a specialised job of the MEA. PM Narendra Modi always has a lot on his plate when he travels abroad –from attending official functions to be serenaded at special events by adoring NRI fans. Since 2014, Modi has visited 37 countries. But, his pace is likely to slow down a bit this year.
The circular has a further clause which is a thorn in MEA’s side. “In an outgoing Indian delegation, there need not be any Ministry of External Affairs’ official from India. Instead, services of the Indian Mission situated in the destination country could be utilised,” said the finance ministry.
For instance, when the next India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission meeting takes place, there will not be any officials from the MEA taking part in the delegation. “This is a bit unbelievable. MEA has the job of keeping in mind the political big picture—on impact on the region or other areas. The missions cannot give these inputs as they are concentrating on bilateral ties,” said a senior government official.