Krishna commits major gaffe at UN meeting

Krishna read the Portuguese foreign minister’s speech for almost three minutes before India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri intervened and told him that he was reading the wrong speech.

Krishna was addressing the UNSC for the first time after India joined the elite group as a non-permanent member on January 1.

Amado spoke before Krishna started delivering his speech. Copies of the Portuguese minister’s speech were circulated to all others sitting around the table that resembles a horseshoe.
 
Krishna also received a copy and sources in New Delhi said that he might have mistakenly picked that up instead of his own when his turn came to deliver his speech.
He continued reading out the Portuguese minister’s speech without realising his goof-up, apparently because the first few paragraphs were related to general issues like development, security and the United Nations’ role.

Puri and the external affairs minister’s adviser Raghavendra Shastri were sitting just behind him. So was Dilip Sinha, Additional Secretary (International Organisations) in the ministry of external affairs.

Faux pas
None of them realised the faux pas for a few minutes and Krishna went on reading out the wrong speech.

But a few lines did go out of place.“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,” was one of them.

Krishna could have said this thinking it fit because Brazil holds the current presidency of the Security Council.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota was chairing the UN Security Council session.

“The European Union is also responding in this manner in coordination with the United Nations,” Krishna said, before Puri intervened.

Sources said that Puri was the first to realise that Krishna was reading the wrong speech and he immediately intervened and requested the minister to start addressing the council again, this time with his own speech.

‘Formal address’
The ministry of external affairs in New Delhi sought to play down the gaffe.
In response to a query, the joint secretary (External Affairs) and official spokesman of the MEA Vishnu Prakash said the “initial parts of all formal addresses” contained “salutation and courteous references”.

“While addressing the UNSC on Friday, the external affairs minister used such expressions from the address of the previous speaker before moving to his prepared text for substantive remarks. The minister went on to make a well-received statement where he highlighted the relevance of the Indian success story to international efforts to meet the challenges of development, peace and security,” the MEA said on Saturday.

But some Pakistani TV channels played up the faux pax ridiculing India’s ambitions to get a permanent seat on the UNSC.

Krishna’s apparently slow reflex and gaffes were topics of discussions in South Block and the corridors of power in New Delhi for quite some time.

During a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart Zalmay Rasool in Kabul in January, Krishna mistakenly referred to Pakistan instead of Afghanistan at least twice till an accompanying official pointed it out to him.

The BJP pounced on the issue to state that it was a big slap in the face for India at an international forum. “The level of incompetence has reached its optimum,” party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.