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Litmus test for Austria’s young President

The population of Austria is half of Delhi’s — nine million.



By K. Natwar Singh

The population of Austria is half of Delhi’s — nine million. Sebastian Kurz (31) was last week elected President. For the past five years, he had been the Foreign Minister. For a similar situation, one has to go back to the last decade of the 18th century. William Pitt the younger became the Prime Minister of Britain at the age of twenty-one. Napoleon appointed himself First Consul about the same time.

For several centuries, the Austria-Hungarian Empire was an important and powerful actor on the European continent. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian princess, married the unfortunate Louis XVI. Both were executed in 1790s.

For the early part of the 20th century, Austria had been on the wrong side of history. The Austria-Hungarian Empire disappeared during World War I.

In 1938, Adolf Hitler attacked Austria and annexed it to become a part of Germany. From 1955 to the present day, the country has been at peace. About ten years ago, I visited the most beautiful part of Austria — Alpbach in the state of Tyrol — for a seminar. PV Narasimha Rao had made a memorable speech at Alpbach in the earlier 1980s.

Nearly a dozen countries round the globe have leaders in their thirties and early forties. The leaders of the USA, the UK, India, China, Japan and Russia are in their sixties.

Can a young Foreign Minister do justice to the job? Yes and no. He can run the foreign policy of a small country, but not of a large country. Kurz’s party is conservative. It was once said that if you were not a communist by the age of twenty-five, you needed to have your head examined.

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In her autobiography, “The Scope of Happiness”, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit gives an account of her two meetings with Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the war time (1940-45) leader of Britain. 

The first meeting went thus; “Mr Churchill (not yet Sir Winston) was Prime Minister when I arrived in London in 1954. On my first call at Downing Street at eleven o’clock, he asked me if I would like some brandy. I politely declined and he said, “this is something I do not understand about India, and you would feel much better if you had some……..”. A little later he asked her, “Why are you called Madame Pandit — its pure affectation….. here you will be Mrs Pandit. Do you mind?”

The second meeting was when Churchill was the Prime Minister. He was recovering from a serious illness. The meeting was at Churchill’s home, Chartwell in Kent. He took Mrs Pandit to see his paintings, asking if she painted. He told her how to start. “If you paint one for me, I will give you one of mine.” He also told her about his disapproval of women joining politics. “I have accepted you, but don’t start trying to incite anyone here.”

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Diwali is the most spectacular of our festivals. This year the glow was missing. Firecrackers were banned to control pollution. The experiment was partially successful. A long-term solution is urgently needed. Delhi, along with Beijing, is the most polluted capital in the world. Figures show that one out of 10 people die of pollution-related diseases. Children suffer the most. China will sooner or rather than later control pollution. I doubt if it will be able to do so in the near future.

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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be in New Delhi next week. Pakistan is also included in his five-nation tour. The US continues to hyphenate India-Pakistan. Yet the Ministry of External Affairs is gloating over Rex Tillerson’s hop stop and jump diplomatic safari. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “Secretary Tillerson has made a significant policy statement on Indo-US relations and its future. He bought out its various strengths and highlighted our shared commitment to a rule-based international order. We appreciate his positive evaluation of the relationship and share his optimism about its future directions. We look forward to welcoming him in India next week for detailed discussions on further strengthing our partnership.”

In his statement, Tillerson made a welcome observation. “I want to make it clear that with our shared values and vision for global stability, peace and prosperity, the US is that partner.”

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