Brajesh Mishra, or Mishraji as he was known to many, will be missed in the strategic and political landscape of New Delhi. A man who exuded power as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Principal Secretary and National Security Advisor combined, passed away on September 28.
Like many journalists in New Delhi, I too can lay claim to knowing him a little – not just from the frequent foreign trips that Vajpayee took during his tenure as Prime Minister, but from the occasional meetings with him after the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government ceased to be in office.
Whether it was over coffee or a drink at his Vasant Vihar residence, you could always take away something from him, on what India should do or not do in the world. You could argue with him, disagree with him, but not miss his obvious intellect.
Mishraji was aware of big moments. After all the acrimony with Pakistan after the 1998 nuclear tests, the mini war in Kargil and the mobilisation of troops after the terror strike on India’s Parliament, he was keenly aware of the moment while talking to the press in Islamabad, on January 7, 2004.
India and Pakistan were about to chart a new course, on which he had worked hard. “Please don’t look at this document as a victory for one side or the other…it’s a win-win situation for all of us,” Mishra said at the press conference.
Given the explicit Pakistani assurance that its territory was not to be used for terrorist activities against India, his comments were clearly aimed at the Pakistani establishment – that he was not trying to crow about what was seen as a diplomatic success for Delhi.
One can blame Mishra for not anticipating that Bill Clinton would release Vajpayee’s letter – written to the then U.S. President, following 1998’s Indian nuclear tests – to the press, indicating a threat from China. In fact, he can be blamed for including such a reference.
But the old China hand was a nimble diplomat (He served as the Chargé d’affaires in Beijing after the 1962 Sino-Indian War). Five years after the nuclear tests, he was trying his hand at taking the border resolution process with the Chinese to a new level. In fact, he was appointed as the Indian Special Representative to take the dialogue forward.
Junking the obvious double standards of the BJP on the civil nuclear deal, Mishra also openly supported the agreement that was championed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first government in 2008.
As has become clear, India’s nuclear tests of May 1998 were not a rabbit pulled out of the hat by the BJP. The nuclear establishment and the Congress had been planning the tests for quite some time, but didn’t have the gumption to see them through.
Ten years later, in an interview for Hindustan Times in 2008, he told me, “… [Nuclear] weaponisation was ordered by Rajiv Gandhi. But we had to test them. The weapons could not have been made between April 8 and May 11 [the BJP’s coalition government came to power in April 1998]. They [weapons] were there, but they were not tested. And, the entire scientific community was saying that we have to test.”
Mishraji’s ability to look beyond his nose led to an unusual situation where Vajpayee’s chief Advisor and trouble-shooter came to be consulted by Manmohan Singh as well.
“I consulted Shri Mishra on a number of occasions as Prime Minister, and found his counsel to be insightful and free from bias. He always thought about what was right for the country…He will be remembered for his masterly handling of the aftermath of the nuclear tests in 1998, and guiding Shri Vajpayee’s peace initiatives in the neighbourhood,” Manmohan Singh said in his condolence message after Mishraji’s death.
This fulsome praise marks a rare moment of bipartisanship in Indian politics. It should be cherished.
Amit Baruah is the South Asia Studies Fellow at Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations.
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