Shashi Tharoor from India who is UN Under Secretary General for Public Information, is out of the race for the post of UN
Secretary General. Ban Ki- Loon, Foreign Minister of S Korea has overtaken him in the fourth straw poll, by receiving 14 ‘encouragements’. Tharoor received 11 encouragements and 3 negatives. One of the negatives was from a P5 member, and this therefore signifies a virtual veto. The final announcement of the Secretary General who will replace Kofi Annan,next February,as the eighth Secretary General of the UN, will be made on 9th October. This should indeed be Ban Ki-Loon, unless any last minute surprise candidates spring up.Shashi Tharoor, who has worked closely with Kofi Annan, may not want to continue as Under Secretary General, beyond February 2007. My take: The UN’s loss couldturn out to be a gain for literature. Tharoor, who is a young fifty, has lots of life left in him. He is a well known writer, and has several books, both fiction and serious political and social commentary to his credit. He is a winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Now that he is likely to find more time to devote to writing, I expect that he is set to reach even greater heights in this field. His published works, among others, are Reasons of State (1982: on India’s foreign policy); The Great Indian Novel (1989, a political satire); Show Business (1992, made into a movie called Bollywood); and several short stories. Having also enjoyed reading his columns in Indian newspapers and magazines, we wait for more from him.