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Salman Khurshid: Lawyer-politician with a gift for words
Sunday October 28, 2012 07:46:43 PM,
Manish Chand,
IANS
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New Delhi: Salman Khurshid, the new foreign minister
of India, blends illustrious pedigree, an impressive Oxford-Stephanian
educational resume and a formidable track record as a Congress
politician who cut his teeth in the heat and dust of Uttar Pradesh
politics.
The 59-year-old Khurshid, a lawyer by training, takes over as
India's external affairs minister at a time when the country's
global stature is rising, and the developed world, reeling from
the global downturn, is looking at New Delhi afresh as an emerging
power.
The suave and articulate Khurshid, who is fluent in three
languages - Hindi, English and Urdu - is no stranger to the world
of international diplomacy. He served as a minister of state for
external affairs (1993-1996) under then prime minister P.V.
Narasimha Rao and played an important role in promoting India's
Look East policy.
In 1994, Narasimha Rao sent Khurshid and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the
BJP leader who later became prime minister, to argue India's case
at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Khurshid's spirited advocacy and Vajpayee's eloquence proved to be
astonishingly effective led to the withdrawal of the
Pakistan-backed resolution against India.
Khurshid, a member of parliament from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha
constituency, was born in Aligarh and was actively involved in
reviving the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh.
The appointment of Khurshid as foreign minister has surprised many
as he was in the eye of the storm recently over a controversy
after TV news channel Aaj Tak "exposed" alleged financial
impropriety in an NGO run by him and his wife Louise, a Christian,
a charge both of them hotly denied. This clearly shows that he
enjoys the confidence of what is called the Congress 'Trinity' -
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and
son Rahul Gandhi - said a party insider.
Colleagues who know him well admire him for his eloquence and
erudition, qualities that will serve him well when the foreign
policy is intimately tied to media projection.
His pedigree is an added advantage. Khurshid is the son of
Khurshid Alam Khan, a former governor and external affairs
minister and grandson of Zakir Hussain, the third president of
India.
A political liberal, Khurshid carved a niche for himself as the
Congress party spokesperson last year when the party and the
government was suffering from a credibility gap in the aftermath
of the anti-corruption campaign launched by Anna Hazare and his
comrades.
Khurshid served as as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime
Minister's Office (PMO) when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister.
Besides politics, Khurshid has a passion for writing and acting in
plays that harks back to his student days in Delhi and Oxford. He
recently authored "Sons of Babur", a widely-acclaimed play which
was staged against the majestic backdrop of the Red Fort in Delhi.
(Manish Chand can be contacted at manish.c@ians.in)
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