Tough Talk In Washington

We caught yesterday, on C-SPAN, foreign secretary Shyam Saran discussing Indo-US relations at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

Quite a tough talker Mr. Saran is.

We must say that his performance did not appear intended to win friends and influence people. Rather, it was a very muscular presentation of India's perspective.

This leaves us a bit concerned.

If India's top diplomat is anything but diplomatic, either this reflects a conscious decision to engage in blunt talk or is the routine manner in which South Block practices its art these days. Neither seems sensible to us.

Washington is a tough place to get things done in the best of times -- with President Bush having difficulty with his own domestic agenda these days, it's not clear how much political capital he has to burn on getting the India nuclear deal. This means India needs to be especially careful on who it ticks off inside the beltway.

Hopefully, our sour impression is overdone and Mr. Saran succeeds in his mission.