Now that we have been told that Colombia has finally swung around to our side on Operation Sindoor after our delegation’s visit to Bogota, we can all sleep better. Millions of Indians were very worried which way the Operation Sindoor wind was blowing in Colombia and, say, in Latvia. It kept us awake at nights. Every morning we woke up to that worry. We need not worry any more. Our delegations have gone and fixed that as well in all the capitals they have variously visited, from Bogota to Riga, from Georgetown, Guyana, to Freetown, Sierra Leone. The problem with our diplomacy is that it often exclusively preaches to the converted. Critics will be heartened to note that it is no longer so. Both the composition of the delegations that have been formed after Operation Sindoor to canvass support for New Delhi and their destinations point unerringly to a broadening and deepening of outreach like never before, both within the country and outside. This is mainly about the outside part.

Much of India had written off, for instance, such stalwarts like MJ Akbar, Salman Khursheed, and Ghulam Nabi Azad as being in a political ventilator. They have been sadly mistaken, thankfully. Just like those who had written Colombia off as a country of no consequence as far as our foreign policy is concerned. We didn’t know that our mandarins in the South Block were hanging on to every little word uttered in Bogota and other similar capitals that had bilateral, even multilateral, ramifications that our aam admi and aurat had no idea about. Now we know.........

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