It is not clear if former US state department official Robin L. Raphel is being investigated for spying or for suspicion of knowledge of espionage activities. But it will come as no surprise to learn that her deep interest in, and sympathy for, Pakistan in her career as a professional US diplomat actively associated with South Asia affairs may have subsequently spilled over into a deeper engagement supportive of Islamabad.
The official in question was political counsellor in New Delhi before being elevated to assistant secretary of state under President Bill Clinton whom she had known from their Oxford days. Her former husband, US ambassador to Pakistan Arnold L. Raphel, died in the same mysterious plane crash that killed Gen. Zia ul-Haq, the then President of Pakistan.
In the early 1990s, the Kashmir Valley was aflame with terrorist activity and Ms Raphel seized upon any opportunity, and created some, to make public pronouncements that were pointedly against this country, questioned Kashmir’s accession to India, and flagrantly emboldened terrorists as well as Islamabad. If she was received in New Delhi, this may only have been on account of her supposed proximity to Mr Clinton, such was the distaste here for her actions and words. Even so, the then Prime Minster, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and his home minister, S.B. Chavan, were obliged to point out that the US seemed to be supportive of terrorism against India emanating from Pakistan.
Washington’s decision to give someone like Ms Raphel charge of India was a sign of arrogance at a time when Soviet power, which had traditionally backed India on Kashmir, had dissolved. It was a textbook case of how not to do diplomacy.
