The prospects of a nuclear deal with the US had stayed frozen after some initial forays during the NDA government. It was in November 2004 when India made the first move,asking the US to include nuclear energy cooperation under the energy dialogue and Washington agreed. The trick there was to frame it as an option for clean energy during the days when climate change was becoming a sensitive issue in the US. And the man who came up with this idea was the then foreign secretary Shyam Saran. Not only was the US interested after that,but even the environment-conscious Europeans suddenly became keen. This then set the stage for the first serious conversation on the nuclear deal in January 2005 when the French diplomatic advisor met former NSA J N Dixit. Saran,a 1970-batch IFS officer who will soon be making his exit from the government,was a product of this new brand of pragmatic foreign policy thinking which found full expression in the 1990s as India groped to find its feet in the post-Cold War world order. In fact,he was one of the two officials in the foreign service whose career symbolised this the best the other was his close mate,colleague and now National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon. The similarities were many. Both were China experts and spoke the language the best in the academy. While Saran moved to Hong Kong after training and then Beijing,Menon two years his junior went straight to Beijing from the academy. The two served as young officers in the political and economic sections of the Indian mission. The bonding only grew as they learnt each others mind,tested their skills about the country they served in and,of course,developed a chemistry that is almost IFS folklore now. It didnt stop there. The two then moved to Delhi together as young under secretaries and Saran later became director in then foreign secretary Jagat Mehtas office. When it came to widening expertise into another area other than China,both officers chose nuclear issues. So,Saran went to the Indian mission at the Conference of Disarmament in Geneva while Menon was posted to the Indian mission at the IAEA in Vienna. After this,Menon went on to do a deputation with the Department of Atomic Energy while Saran went back to Beijing. When Sarans term was getting over in Beijing,the person chosen to replace him as deputy chief of mission in the late 1980s was Menon. Saran then moved as DCM to Tokyo and again when he finished his term,the replacement was Menon. Saran then became JS (East Asia) and Menon followed on to the same post a few years later. It was only in the 1990s that the two charted a separate course. Saran worked in the Narasimha Rao PMO,went to Mauritius,Myanmar and Nepal while Menon headed missions in Sri Lanka,China and then Pakistan. Of course,Saran became foreign secretary and Menon took over from him. It was against several odds that Saran persisted with his recommendation to have Menon backed by the Prime Minister as his successor given that a handful of IFS officers senior to Menon had to be overlooked. The two officials mark an important phase in Indian diplomacy. Saran,for instance,was known to challenge ideological trappings of the past and so,it is not surprising that he had a role to play in almost every important foreign policy milestone in the last two decades. He was a joint secretary in the PMO when the decision was taken to start diplomatic ties with Israel. And it had to be more than just coincidence that the second ambassador to Tel Aviv was Menon the first one served for just about a year. It was Saran,who was credited with the turnaround in Indias Myanmar policy. During his stint as ambassador there,he,for the first time,questioned the ideology-driven position to not engage with the military regime there. Taking note of the growing Chinese influence in that country,Saran took a risk and prevailed upon Delhi to effect a change. If today Myanmar is willing to crack down on groups inimical to Indian interests,it was because of this policy turnaround a decade ago. The nuclear deal was just one of the important milestones in his term as foreign secretary. When Nepal plunged into crisis and King Gyanendra was counting on China to bring the US on its side,Saran was the first in the government along with then RAW chief P K H Tharakan to take the position that the time had come to choose in favour of the democratic forces in the Himalayan kingdom. The political leadership was said to have been uncomfortable as they rightly saw it as a way for Maoists to take power but Saran felt the monarchy had lost all popular support. The idea of democracy worked well with Washington and US fell in line,China was forced to back off and the King was isolated. His term saw the best phase in Indo-Pak relations. And here Saran depended a lot on friend Menon,who was then high commissioner in Islamabad. Together they worked out the deal for the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service,liberalised visa regimes to some extent and almost sealed a settlement on Siachen when they managed to get a withdrawal plan worked out. Saran,who many believe was fortunate to have worked without an external affairs minister after Natwar Singhs exit,also took matters forward with China after Dixits death. And,to his credit,was able to clinch an agreement on the political parameters for a boundary settlement. Later,many in the Chinese establishment grew uncomfortable with the agreement and since then have been trying to re-interpret the clauses. But the agreement is there and that remains Indias biggest positive on the boundary negotiations. Before moving on to the PMO,Saran tackled several housekeeping issues for the MEA like getting the IFS its first dedicated residential colony in Delhi. Once in the PMO,he worked closely with Menon to close the nuclear deal. He focused on the NSG while Menon did the talking with the US. Together,they played a major role in changing Indias image from being a country which almost instinctively said no to any idea to one which now says yes. But when it came to choosing the next NSA,the logical sequence of the past four decades was disrupted by a political decision that saw Menon overtake Saran. The Prime Minister sought to mollify the awkwardness of the situation but in the end,Saran took the call that the time had come to call it quits and conclude an eventful career with dignity while keeping this important friendship intact. So on March 15,when Menon goes to his office,he will know that this time his senior and friend will no longer be there in the next corridor. The mantle that the two carried together so far will now only be his as he plays yet another important innings while his friend watches from the sidelines.
