Surprise over circular to missions

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 26. The Vajpayee Government is believed to have sent a note to all the foreign missions abroad to defend it in the Tehelka expose and present it as a ``conspiracy'' to destabilise the Government.

According to sources in the Indian High Commission, the office of the Foreign Secretary has sent a circular to all the foreign missions abroad explaining the salient features of the Tehelka expose and its fallout.

The thrust of the circular is that the Tehelka operation was all about a ``fictitious deal'' and the so-called deal did not involve any actual defence product. It has underlined the need for the missions to present the facts about the controversy that followed the expose.

A senior staffer in the High Commission expressed surprise at the nature of the circular and wondered if there was any precedent of such a communication by the Foreign Office to the missions abroad.

``I fail to understand the role of Foreign Office in what is essentially an internal matter of India. In my view, it is a bizarre circular. What can we do in a place like Islamabad when top functionaries of the Government and the ruling party have accused the ISI of playing a role in the conspiracy,'' the senior official asked.

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