K.M.Meena becomes Ambassador of ... New Destination

K.M.Meena

Ahmed

New Delhi - Talmiz Ahmed, the current Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been appointed as India's new envoy to Oman succeeding K.M.Meena. According to an official announcement, Kamaluddin Ahmed, a former minister and current member of the Planning Commission will be India's next envoy to Saudi Arabia.

It is said that K.M.Meena's premature transfer comes immediately after he decided to cancel the Memorandum of Understanding with three prominent Non Resident Indain businessmen . Even though Meena will be completing two years only in July 2003, a senior official in South Block has been keenly waiting for a chance to "teach" Meena a lesson for disobeying his dictates for giving special privileges to a private school promoter.

Even though the senior official who made all efforts to support private school promoters, the outgoing Indian Ambassador has been reluctant to allow private businessmen commercialise non profit entities like Indian community schools. The "illegal agreement" with a Non Resident Indian was canceled and the school started operations as a community school charging one of the lowest fees in this part of the world. Even though Meena tried to get other schools, community schools, under private control reduce fees and improve transparency, the promoters were reluctant to accept his authority in the matter and continue to charge the highest fees. The cold war started two years ago when Meena decided to undertake drastic restructuring of Indian schools operation with new board members and committee members. Covert Campaign by School lobby to oust Indian Diplomat intensifies It is worth reading an earlier report by Keralamonitor.com

Thanks to the clout enjoyed by the senior official, South Block has been planning a series of shuffles among ambassadors and senior officials. The move will affect at least 10 senior Indian diplomats India’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, K.C. Singh, is slated to go to Teheran to replace P.S. Haer who is likely to head the mission in Dublin. India’s growing ties with Iran makes Teheran a key area of focus and it is felt that Singh, a Farsi speaker, will do a good job.

K.M.Meena, Indian Ambassador in Muscat has been chosen for another destination. He will leave his active two years in July 2003. It is learned that each diplomat is given minimum two years service in one country. The senior official in the Ministry of External Affairs has been keenly waiting to replace Meena with another "business friendly ambassador" because some of Meena' s bold steps have antagonised some powerful NRIs. "Two years is the minimum period allowed to any ambassadors. Meena will be completing two years only in July 2003. The expected transfer is more due to the pressure exerted by influential lobby rather than a normal move, say Indian community leaders.

Sudhir Vyas, India’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad who was recently asked to leave by Pakistan, is likely to replace Singh in Abu Dhabi. Vyas may not deal with Pakistan directly, but an important part of his assignment in the UAE will be to deal with those who figure in India’s most-wanted list and continue to travel between Karachi and Dubai. Talmiz Ahmed, India’s ambassador in Saudi Arabia who has in three-and-half-years removed some of the obstacles in Indo-Saudi relations. He has also made Riyadh more interested in India,.

"Initially, his name was thought of as the ambassador in Syria. But Arif Khan, who was to move to Riyadh from Damascus and did not find Saudi Arabia an attractive posting, thwarted the move. The problem with a posting in Saudi Arabia is that an important part of the ambassador’s duties has to do with Haj pilgrims," said a report in Telegraph. "This makes it essential that only a Muslim official be posted there.However, at the moment, there are not many officials in the foreign ministry senior enough to be posted in Riyadh," the Telegraph report said. The new Ambassador is said to be a pious Muslim who has been very tough in som matters in Saudi Arabia.

.Talmiz Ahmed’s name was doing the rounds as head of the mission in Zimbabwe. According to Telegraph report, some sections in the ministry pointed out that his vast knowledge of the area and his earlier posting as the number two in South Africa will help re-shape India’s policy there, reports say. The current ambassador in Zimbabwe, A.K. Basu, is due to retire soon.Arun Mukar, India’s ambassador in Serbia-Montenegro, is likely to go to Chicago as consul-general. Surinder Kumar, the consul in Chicago, is likely to return to headquarters.

India’s ambassador in Azerbaijan, Dinkar Khullar, was to move to Bulgaria, replacing Neelima Mitra, who is slated to go to Colombia to head the mission there. Lavanya Prasad, the ambassador in Laos, is likely to move to Belgrade. S. Topden is likely to move from the consul-general’s post in Frankfurt to replace her in Laos. -keralamonitor.com