Never a dull moment

As Her Excellency Ms. Sujatha Singh, High Commissioner of India to Australia, leaves for her next posting to Germany, Indian Link exclusively discussed various issues pertaining to her term. Ms. Singh spoke candidly to DARSHAK MEHTA on her tenure and its challenges.

Darshak Mehta: Please tell us what was the highlight of your posting?

Sujatha Singh: All of it. Truly. This has been one of my most eventful assignments. It’s been a privilege to work hard at forging a strategic partnership that has so much unrealised potential and to start seeing the results.

There was never a dull moment, which speaks for itself in telling you how dynamic the relationship is, how much is happening in all sectors – be it trade, investment, energy, mineral resources, education, academic exchanges, culture, tourism, people to people contacts, community affairs, migration…

DM: What are your feelings on the success of the uranium sales to India?

SS: I’m glad my tenure here was long enough to see the policy change happening. We now need to negotiate a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation Agreement, which when successfully concluded, will have an impact way beyond uranium exports and nuclear energy.

DM: How has the relationship between India and Australia developed during your tenure? What have been its successes and failures?

SS: The development of any relationship is a process that takes time, commitment and patience from all stakeholders. The ability to weather differences of view, ups and downs, is one of the indications of the strength and maturity of the relationship.

Successes? The enormous growth in trade and investment – both of which have grown several fold over the past four years, a reflection of the fast changing profile of the Indian economy, slowly but surely coming into its own. Australia is now our 8th largest trading partner, with nearly 80% of the trade being mineral resources needed for our industrial development; the significant growth in Indian investment, especially in mineral resources and connected infrastructure; the decision to forge a strategic partnership; the partnership in energy, including clean energy and mining; significantly growing people to people contacts; new policy dialogues; growing resources being put into understanding where the other comes from; the growing number of high level exchanges, both at the federal as well as the state level, including at the highest level at multilateral Summits such as the G-20 and the EAS; the opening of the Consulate General in Perth, the second new Consulate we’ve opened here in five years after Melbourne; a significant strengthening of our diplomatic presence here in the High

Commission, all of which gives you an indication of GOI’s commitment to this relationship. Failures? I don’t see anything as a failure. What one may perhaps perceive as a failure today can turn into a success tomorrow, with enough will to address the issues.

It’s been a team effort, with inputs from several sources, including our Consulates and the vibrant Indian community in Australia. It’s truly been a privilege working with all the people, departments, organisations and institutions involved to jointly make all this happen.

DM: What are your views on the outsourcing of visas and consular services?

SS: The outsourcing of visa, passport and consular services has been important in making the process more people friendly and efficient. Four years back when I arrived, I used to literally get hundreds of e-mails every month complaining about delays of three months or more; these are now down to just a few and we attend to these promptly. Turnaround times have reduced sharply. We were able to accede to the longstanding request to allow credit card payments and offer many other conveniences as well. True, there is a service fee involved, but we’ve streamlined the process and made it much more efficient. It is important to realise that our service charges are still lower than those charged by several other countries. This also goes for our visa fees, and one should remember, much of the fee structure is based on reciprocity too.

I think people who are critical of our consular services should pause to compare these with what they receive from other foreign embassies. It saddens me when the same Indian, who is unfailingly polite to foreigners can behave quite differently with

DM: The student issue dominated a large part of your tenure. In hindsight was there another way to handle the situation?

SS: This was one of the more difficult and complex issues that I dealt with where the complete picture emerged only slowly, over a period of months, of all the factors, circumstances, institutions and policies in play. And all this against a backdrop of relentless media focus.

It was a learning experience in every sense of the word, for everyone concerned. I am hopeful that the lessons to be learned have been learnt.

It was also an issue that I felt strongly about as a parent, as both my children have studied overseas. I felt strongly for those students who were affected and for their families. I am glad that it’s behind us now, and that measures have been put into place to deal with the various factors that contributed to the incidents that took place.

DM: In the next 10 years, other than a better relationship between the two countries, what else would you like to see happen between India and Australia?

SS: Everything I’d like to see happening is already in the process of happening. It takes time.

DM: What are your views on the plethora of Indian organisations?

SS: Given the rapidly growing Indian community and the diversity that exists in our country, this is inevitable and not necessarily a negative thing. There is comfort to be had by newly arrived migrants from the company of people from the same background, speaking the same language and observing the same festivals. I also think that these organisations have an important role to play in mentoring and guiding the younger generation, some of whom may not be from

All ears for members of the community

new ideas, investments and technologies back home. All

BY greg chapell mBe

My wife Judy and I first met the High Commissioner of India in Australia at the home of our good friend Darshak Mehta in Mosman in 2008, not long after we had returned from India. We both found her a very warm, engaging and interesting person.

Subsequently I met her many times at social functions and a number of times at the Sydney Test match where she began to learn understand and enjoy the game of cricket. I found her questions on the nuances of the game quite insightful.

Late last year I launched my autobiography entitled Fierce Focus which covered all aspects of my cricket life including the three amazing years that Judy and I spent living in India while I worked, first with the Indian team and then with the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

Out of courtesy and friendship I invited Sujatha to the launch of my book. Perhaps cheekily I asked if she would say a few words at the launch. I was honoured that she agreed to attend and flattered that she agreed to say a few words as the representative of the Indian people in Australia.

Sujatha was most generous in her words of support and I was touched that she spoke so warmly about the effort that Judy and I made to make a difference in our time in India. It meant a lot to us both and only served to reinforce the many happy memories we have of our time in India.

We both congratulate her and wish her well in her new posting and look forward to the day when our paths cross again.

Effective Advocate For India

Association for Regional Cooperation.

BY john faulkner

I appreciate this opportunity to place on record my personal thanks and appreciation for the work of HE Sujatha Singh, who will soon be leaving Australia after four and a half years of distinguished service as India’s High Commissioner.

Simply put, Sujatha has been an extraordinarily effective advocate for India. Her accomplishments include the Strategic Partnership agreed by Prime Ministers in 2009, the 2009 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, the defence policy talks in 2010 and 2011, the commencement of FTA negotiations in 2011 and bringing Australia and India together to reinvigorate the Indian Ocean Rim

Sujatha has also worked tirelessly for the Indian community - for example, by ensuring the safety of Indian students and visitors to Australia, and by encouraging SBS to add Hindi News to its daily diet of foreign news programs.

I personally appreciate Sujatha’s support for a wide range of charity events – including our fundraising efforts for Oxfam, where Sujatha has been a consistently generous supporter.

Just a couple of weeks ago Sujatha and I watched a session of the Second Test - Australia vs India - in the M.A. Noble Stand at the SCG. Of course, the views I expressed to Sujatha about cricket remain strictly confidential and highly classified!

I sincerely wish Sujatha well on her next posting to Berlin, and I thank her for her important and lasting contribution as High Commissioner here in Australia, and for her friendship.

Selling india’S Soft poWer

Her Excellency Mrs Sujatha Singh has had a good innings as India’s High Commissioner to Australia. She has travelled extensively in her 4 year plus term, and, I venture to guess, knows Australia better than most diplomats. I know that she has consulted extensively with the Indian community which holds her in high regard and she has been a wonderful advocate for India in her stint, here.

I have had the pleasure of meeting her and getting to know her and it has not merely been in a cricket environment. In her own quiet and charming way, she has strongly represented and advanced India’s interests, my Indian friends tell me. She has handled various crises in her term extremely adeptly. Soft power has been one of her themes. India after all has a rich culture and cuisine and she has ensured that virtually every Australian who asked (and some even who did not!) got a copy of Aamir Khan’s Lagaan.

Of course, I have seen her a bit at the cricket as well - where she is known to be highly emotional, like most Indians, I know!

It is the role of a Diplomat to be a roving Ambassador and I guess it is an indicator of how highly she is thought of by her bosses back home that she has been posted next to Germany – one of India’s strongest trade partners.

I know that all of us who got to know her will miss her and I wish her all the best.

I am sure that one day, in the near future, she can be an excellent Foreign Secretary of India!