How Indira lit up & sniffed out a friend

Few people now remember that when India fought a difficult diplomatic battle with its back
to the wall for the creation of Bangladesh four decades ago, it had one unwavering ally:
Mongolia.
In 1972, when Indira Gandhi instructed India's permanent mission in New York to move a
resolution in the UN General Assembly for recognising the new nation that had seceded from
Pakistan and drum up support, it could persuade no more than two countries to co-sponsor
that resolution. One of those two co-sponsors was Mongolia; the other was Bhutan.
As soon as Mongolia signalled the president of the General Assembly that it was cosponsoring the Indian resolution, Pakistan broke off diplomatic relations with Mongolia. But
in Ulan Bator, the leadership did not waver. Instead, it conveyed greater support to Indira's
efforts to position Dhaka securely on the global diplomatic stage.

An immensely pleased Indira immediately invited U. Tsedenbal, then Prime Minister, to visit
India. Tsedenbal accepted the invitation forthwith because he had earlier enjoyed her father's
gracious hospitality when Jawaharlal Nehru hosted him in 1959 as the first high-level visitor
from Mongolia after India's independence.
There was a collective leadership in Ulan Bator in 1959 and Tsedenbal was the chairman of
the presidium then.
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Mongolia's leadership had to struggle for more than a year and work with South Block to
arrange Tsedenbal's travel to New Delhi. Logistics posed a formidable challenge. But when
the visit took place in 1973, it became the staple of diplomatic folklore and remained so for a
long time.
The Mongolian interpreter who translated the conversation between Tsedenbal and Indira has
a hazy recollection that the prime ministerial banquet was held in a part of Teen Murti House,
the residence of the first Prime Minister, because all of it had not yet become the Nehru
Museum. But the rest of his memory is graphic.
At the end of the banquet, Indira asked Tsedenbal if he wanted to discuss something one-toone with no one from either delegation present. The distinguished visitor nodded and the two
Prime Ministers stepped out of the banquet hall into the shadow of a tall tree.
To Tsedenbal's eternal surprise, Indira produced a cigarette case and flung it open for her
host. Customarily, Mongolians are heavy smokers but on this occasion their Prime Minister
hesitated. To put her visiting counterpart at ease, Indira then pulled out a cigarette and lit one
herself. Tsedenbal followed suit.
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As their tete-a-tete was coming to a close, Indira solicitously enquired if there was anything
her government could do for Mongolia beyond what had been discussed by their delegations.
Tsedenbal was visibly overcome, the interpreter recalls, yet he hesitated.
Indira coaxed him to speak his mind. The visiting Prime Minister then asked if India could
supply Mongolia some good powder snuff.
When two Mongolians meet, they do not shake hands. Instead, they greet each other by
exchanging small bottles of snuff that they invariably carry in the pouches of their national
dress.
Snuff bottles maketh a Mongolian: these bottles are status symbols and help place their
owners' standing. It is not unusual to see Mongolians carry snuff bottles made of jade, onyx
and other such precious material.
But in 1973, Mongolia was not getting good snuff into the country. Could Indira arrange
some snuff that was good enough to match the quality of those bottles that the privileged
exchange as a tradition?
For several years after that, regular consignments of the best Indian snuff went to Mongolia
to cement friendship between the two peoples. Trust Indira to sniff out reliable friends in
faraway lands!
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Few flights by Air India One, the Prime Minister's special aircraft, have been as demanding at
the planning stage as the one Narendra Modi took from China to Mongolia during the
weekend.
Air India has flown into Ulan Bator no more than five times in the last 68 years and the flight
path into Mongolia's capital is, therefore, unfamiliar territory for its cockpit crews.
Even Air India's veteran flight captains who have migrated from the Indian Air Force into
commercial aviation are extra-cautious when flying VVIPs like Modi.
One of the good things about Modi's decision to travel to Ulan Bator has been that archival
material about Indo-Mongolian relations in South Block, which might otherwise not have
seen the light of day, have been pored over by officials, throwing rare light on one of India's
enduring but understated bilateral relations.
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India's first ambassador to Mongolia with residence in Ulan Bator was Sonam Narboo, a
career diplomat from Ladakh, whose son was until recently a cabinet minister in the Jammu
and Kashmir government headed by Omar Abdullah.
The Mongolians were delighted that 15 years after India and Mongolia established diplomatic
relations, New Delhi was posting a full-time envoy to their capital. So the nomination was
quickly cleared. But Narboo discovered that in 1970-71, getting to Ulan Bator from New
Delhi was easier said than done.

Indira Gandhi
In the aftermath of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government had
stopped issuing visas for those entering from Hong Kong into mainland China for onward
journey to a third country. Until then, this was the "approved" route for the very few Indians
who set foot in Mongolia.
The external affairs ministry's archives show notings proposing an alternative route for
Narboo via Moscow because Aeroflot, the Soviet airline, provided the only air connection
with Mongolia, albeit on flights that were not all that frequent. The Soviets, despite all their
friendship with Indians, refused to carry the ambassador on board.
Their reason is a reminder today of the inflexibility and wooden-headedness that stood out
during communism.
Omsk, where the Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Ulan Bator made a technical halt, was a
protected airport for defence reasons and no foreigner could land there - even on transit and
even if he was not leaving the aircraft during the stop. In any case, the Soviets refused
Narboo a diplomatic visa because he was not a diplomat accredited in Moscow.
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It was T.N. Kaul, then foreign secretary, who finally decided that the ambassador to Mongolia
would have to go from New Delhi to London - there were no non-stop flights to London then
- travel onward to Finland and catch a train which had a bogie that would take him eventually
to Mongolia via Moscow.
Narboo's train journey from Finland to Ulan Bator took eight days. But his problems were not
over. The only concrete residential buildings in the Mongolian capital in the early 1970s were
its hotels.

Ambassadors lived in one room and the embassy was made up of another hotel room. Narboo
had a wife and six children. Talk of service abroad for one's country - hardship posting in
diplomatic jargon - and this was a prime example.