<p>“Foreign policy is too important to be left to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) alone,” Tharoor wisecracked during his address at the 28th annual convocation of Mangalore University here, a la Clemenceau (“War is too important to be left to the Generals”).<br /><br />He noted that foreign policy debates in Parliament and the media seemed “obsessed with Pakistan or with ephemera, or worse, ephemera about Pakistan. There is little appetite for in-depth discussion about the merits of participating in the Non-Aligned Movement or the Conference of Democracies, or SAARC or the Indian Ocean Rim Conference,” he lamented.<br />It was a typical Tharoor day. In the morning, it was the turn of his colleague in the Union Council of Ministers, Jairam Ramesh, to be at the receiving end.<br /><br />Twitter bug Tharoor tweeted before he delivered the convocation address: “About to address Mangalore University convocation. Will be wearing red silk robe. As a guest, thought it best not to disturb established tradition.”<br /><br />Another of his messages read: “No harm in evolving Indian version of ceremonial garb, appropriate for our weather and dress culture. Until that happens, must stick to practice.”<br />Tharoor’s barb was obviously aimed at Ramesh taking off his ceremonial robe at the convocation of Indian Institute of Forest Management in Bhopal on Thursday, while remarking: “I still have not been able to figure out after 60 years of Independence why we stick to these barbaric colonial relics.”<br /></p>
<p>“Foreign policy is too important to be left to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) alone,” Tharoor wisecracked during his address at the 28th annual convocation of Mangalore University here, a la Clemenceau (“War is too important to be left to the Generals”).<br /><br />He noted that foreign policy debates in Parliament and the media seemed “obsessed with Pakistan or with ephemera, or worse, ephemera about Pakistan. There is little appetite for in-depth discussion about the merits of participating in the Non-Aligned Movement or the Conference of Democracies, or SAARC or the Indian Ocean Rim Conference,” he lamented.<br />It was a typical Tharoor day. In the morning, it was the turn of his colleague in the Union Council of Ministers, Jairam Ramesh, to be at the receiving end.<br /><br />Twitter bug Tharoor tweeted before he delivered the convocation address: “About to address Mangalore University convocation. Will be wearing red silk robe. As a guest, thought it best not to disturb established tradition.”<br /><br />Another of his messages read: “No harm in evolving Indian version of ceremonial garb, appropriate for our weather and dress culture. Until that happens, must stick to practice.”<br />Tharoor’s barb was obviously aimed at Ramesh taking off his ceremonial robe at the convocation of Indian Institute of Forest Management in Bhopal on Thursday, while remarking: “I still have not been able to figure out after 60 years of Independence why we stick to these barbaric colonial relics.”<br /></p>