Could MEA spokesperson have gone beyond her brief?

By Atul Aneja

NEW DELHI, JULY 21. As the dust begins to settle on the Agra summit and post-mortem gather momentum, ``media management'' entrusted to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has come in for sharp criticism.

Ms. Nirupama Rao, newly-appointed spokesperson for the Ministry, has been fiercely, and many feel unfairly, attacked for the ``media fiasco'' at Agra.

Is the anger against Ms. Rao justified? Could the MEA's external publicity division have done better? In briefing halls, crowded cafeterias or any other assemblage of journalists, an end to the discussion on this does not appear to be in sight.

The themes agitating the media are familiar. One revolves around Ms. Rao's scarce presence at the media centre at the Mughal Sheraton hotel in Agra. The other is her terse Government statements on the happenings in the Jaypee Palace Hotel where the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, were holding endless rounds of talks. Ms. Rao's refusal to take questions on the statements she read out has also been commented upon.

While acknowledging that the media's grouse may not be unfounded, official sources observing the developments have an explanation. Ms. Rao, they say, could not have gone beyond her brief drawn by senior members of the Indian delegation. The MEA, for instance, had decided that it would not conduct diplomacy through the media while the talks were on. It was this understanding that was reflected in the statements Ms. Rao read out. In no way could an officer of the Joint Secretary rank flout the iron-clad parameters she had been asked to uphold before the media.

Neither can she be blamed for not taking questions, for the decision against a question-and-answer session was also taken at the top. In other words, Ms. Rao was asked to conduct before the media a performance rigidly choreographed by her superiors.

For most of the day on July 16, Ms. Rao was absent at the media centre - for which she has been severely criticised. But her advocates say it is unfair to blame her. She had to be at the Jaypee Palace hotel where expectations were high that a joint declaration could be signed any moment after noon.

By that afternoon there was no change in Gen. Musharraf's plan to leave for Ajmer around 2 p.m., reinforcing the expectation of a joint declaration. Ms. Rao, therefore, had to be in the hotel to meet the 2 p.m. deadline and also arrange a press conference which was also planned if the talks succeeded.

But with a breakthrough turning elusive, the schedule for the signing ceremony and the press conference kept slipping. In confining herself to the hotel till about midnight, Ms. Rao was a prisoner of a highly dynamic and unpredictable situation.

As for her unavailability during the summit, sources clarified that her cellular phone number had been widely distributed to Indian mediapersons.

Interaction with the media became unsavoury when Ms. Rao was heckled by a group of angry journalists, mostly from Pakistan. They blamed her for standing in the way of a midnight press conference by Gen. Musharraf at the Amar Vilas hotel. Sources say that Ms. Rao could not be held responsible for this as the decision not to hold the press conference was taken on security considerations.

While the Pakistani Government spokesman, Mr. A.A. Gondal, has expressed regret over the incident, no such apology, contrary to media reports, has come from any diplomat of the Pakistani High Commission.

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