Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna's speech at UN Security Council Newyork

Are you a supporter of Ronaldo and would follow his team’s fortunes madly ? 

Recently, I had circulated my happiness  http://sampspeak.blogspot.com/2011/01/india-in-elite-league-un-security.html   on India getting a place in UN Security Council as non-permanent member – a two year term. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and maintains  international peace and security. It is the body which oversees peacekeeping operations, establishes international sanctions and authorizes military action. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action The General Assembly had  elected Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting on 1 January 2011. The newly elected countries have replaced Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda.   The Security Council had its first session on 17^th Jan 1946 at London and now has its hq at Newyork city.

Portugal is a country in Southwestern Europe on the Iberian peninsula bordering Atlantic Ocean and Spain.  It is a land which has influence of Roman empire.  In 1989 film ‘Chanakyan’  directed by TK Rajeevkumar, Kamal using an Outdoor broadcast van, would interrupt the live speech of CM, use the mimicry artist Jayaram to air something else and humiliate the politician. 

It was public hearing something other than the original script – there is the shocking news of a High Official reading out somebody else’s speech………  what a flub !   To add to the insult, the Official was quoted as saying it was simple inadvertence and such things do happen because many of these speeches make the same initial points.   He was quoted as saying  "There was nothing wrong in it,  adding "there were so many papers spread infront of me so by mistake the wrong speech was taken out."

It was not any speech in any obscure forum. The venue was United Nations Security Council and it was the  debate on security and development.  India's external affairs minister SM Krishna read out the wrong speech for about three minutes before being corrected by India's envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri.  Reports state that Krishna read Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado's speech, without realising his mistake, apparently because the first portion related to general issues pertaining to the UN, development and security. The Portuguese minister had already spoken before India.  The Indian Minister is at Newyork on a two day state visit  to push India's agenda for Security Council reforms.

The person is our External Affairs Minister and the forum is UN Security Council.  This purportedly was a high level meeting convened by Brazil, which is the President of the council for the month of February.  Their Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota was to preside and foreign ministers from several other countries including Germany, Columbia, Portugal were present.  The meeting was to discuss the big picture on peace and security as well as the connections between security and development.  India was to lobby for the issue of UNSC reforms and for expanding the no. of seats in both permanent and non-permanent categories as India has been putting forth itself as a candidate for permanancy asserting that the present 5 member committee is a legacy of the post WW and has to change in tune with the times. 

Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna  (born in 1932) was the CM of Karnataka from 1999 to 2004 and Governor of Maharashtra from 2004 to 2008.  He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and is the Minister of External Affairs.  He holds a law degree and studied in Dallas before returning to India. 

His supporters claim that the mistake was inadvertant and was corrected within minutes.  But there are reports that he was stopped by  Hardeep Puri, India's Permanent Representative to the UN  and reportedly had read out  "On a more personal note, allow me to express my profound satisfaction regarding the happy coincidence of having two members of the Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), Brazil and Portugal, together here today."

The Portugal Minister had already finished his speech and the English translation was being distributed which got mixed up with Krishna’s papers.  Some official’s head is bound to role on this fiasco which certainly is an embarrassment for the Nation which is pitching for a permanent UNSC seat.  Reports recall the gaffe of Irish PM Brian Cowen in 2009 when he had read a few paras only to realise that he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had given earlier. 

A school teacher would rehearse his speech many a times, even for the umpteenth repetition to the class students.  Krishna is 78 and many of our politicians are aged.  As people age, they tend to forget more and confuse more but none of these would sufficiently reason out the damage that it could cause to the National’s interest..  A repetition of a mistake does not condone it or make it acceptable.  In many ways, it only explains the callous attitude of the politicians. 

Regards – S. Sampathkumar. 

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro  is the star forward playing for Spanish club  Real and captained the Portuguese National team in the soccer WC.