KP Nayar in the Telegraph:
The new external affairs minister, S.M. Krishna, is changing the flavour of South Block. No longer are visitors to the first-floor office of the minister asked if they want tea or coffee. Instead, waiters walk in and out of his suite of offices and that of his long-time personal aide, Raghavendra Shastry, now Krishna’s advisor, with trays of south India’s celebrated filter coffee. Of course, tea is available for those who do not drink coffee, but otherwise, the aroma of Mysore coffee from the home state of the external affairs minister constantly wafts through his office.
Loyalty, often bordering on sycophancy, is ingrained in bureaucrats all over the world and South Block is no exception. So, taking the cue from the boss, many Indian Foreign Service officers at their headquarters have taken to serving south Indian filter coffee to visitors instead of tea or the good old café au lait brewed at the Indian Coffee Board’s outlet at the ministry of external affairs as its most popular beverage for many years.
The new minister’s decision to popularize south Indian filter coffee goes well beyond any commitment to coffee-growers in Coorg in his native Karnataka. Krishna, who will soon be celebrating 50 years in public life, has enough political savvy to find mileage even in south Indian filter coffee. Although he does not deal with the Islamic world or Haj, Krishna has already told some Muslim visitors to his office about the ‘Islamic’ virtues of the Karnataka beverage he is now consciously popularizing in his ministry. It is a tale that, surprisingly, Muslim leaders to whom Krishna narrated the story did not know themselves. More:
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