Before Donald Trump inveigles for himself the Nobel Peace Prize New Delhi might as well appoint him the Spokesperson of the Government of India and earn some brownie points. Brownie points are sorely needed for our foreign policy right now. Trump makes a very good case for brownie points. He speaks more often than our Spokesperson and enunciates matters more clearly. He follows that Stark Trek dictum and often goes where no man has gone before. He goes and does things that were unthinkable in the world of strategic affairs twisting well settled international principles around as though they were so much play dough. Certainly, some world leaders are noticeably more silly-putty in his hands than others.

Trump goes and says things that our Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson just can’t, not while the Parliament is on and in an unvarnished fashion. He doesn't hide behind anonymity . Our spokespeople are trained to push out quietly intense, anodyne, vaguely supercilious on-record statements like “India and US ties have been through tough times and we will get through this one as well.” The newspapers then dutifully splash it on Page One, saying government has clarified and proceed to run editorials on those lines throwing in words like ‘thankfully’ or ‘not a moment too soon’ to qualify the clarification which is almost invariably as clear as mud. Trump just announced (Saturday our time, Friday his) for example, a major change in our energy policy, saying, “Well, I understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia. I don’t know whether that’s right or not. But it’s a good step! We will see what happens.” See, here is someone who........

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