Tony Blair the prime minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland steps down to make way to his successor. Tony Blair was the focus of contempt and hatred of the world community for joining hands with Bush in attacking Iraq. This one act had diminished his reputation for smart judgment on issues. Though he made a couple of mistakes such as the Iraqi issue he surely can boast of some achievements.
Northern Ireland is Blair’s greatest success. He not only ensured that the two sides agreed to a ceasefire but also succeeded in bringing Irish Republican Army (IRA), which had the reputation as one of the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world, to the mainstream.
Tony Blair was confident that he could solve the Ireland problem once he got the power and he did it to a great extend. This success will remain the milestone of his career as his predecessors had no guts to dare to risk the sentiment in Britain especially as IRA had made an daring attempt on Margaret Thatcher’s life. But Blair had the conviction to move on his selected path.
He maintained a good ally with Bill Clinton, who had Irish roots and they together were successful in persuading the IRA to stop their activities. Blair winning his second term was a vindication of such daring policies he took. Peace in Northern Ireland has made UK more prosperous, cohesive, and globalised country. Though the Indo-Britain relationship was not smooth of Blair regime, when we take the whole picture India enjoyed his friendship to a great extend.
Blair came to power when India was not much interested in building bonds with the country and in fact the Prime Minister I.K.Gujaral had described Britain as a third-rate power. It was when Blair had entered into his second year that India declared itself a Nuclear Weapon State and Blair’s first foreign minister Robin cook was very critical of India. But overall Blair was friendly with us.
Today it is a two-way relationship where Indian investors are on an investment spree in the UK and British companies are also flocking to set their offices in India. Not only the corporate houses, the Law Society in London is knocking on New Delhi’s doors to allow UK companies to set up offices in India and in turn they are inviting Indian giants to the world’s financial capital.
Blair had sent troops to prevent the ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia and was an enthusiastic partner in the war in Afghanistan which was actually headed by the US against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. These interventions earned him great reputation. But things went wrong when he joined hands with Bush in the Iraq restructuring (or is it destruction?).
The world is angry that he defied the popular sentiment to stop the intervention and had done nothing to bring back the soldiers from Iraq. Ignoring this ‘one’ unfortunate fact, Blair was in fact a successful leader.
