NEW DELHI, Aug 25: High commissioner to South Africa and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Gopal Gandhi, is likely to be inducted as the new secretary to president K R Narayanan.

Gandhi's high-profile career move to the office also means that this is the second time in three years that India is moving its representative out of SA. Some foreign policy analysts fear the move will be interpreted by Africa as a lack of serious commitment on the part of India with a country with which it has a century-old association.

``Gandhi's presence in South Africa had a magic and a romance associated with it. He was just beginning to consolidate our relationship in that country,'' one observer said. Gandhi had replaced IFS officer M K Mangala Murthy in Pretoria only last July.

Considering that India had been in the forefront of the international struggle against apartheid, analysts pointed out, Murthy's appointment as India's first high commissioner to that country after the multiracial elections in 1994, was unfortunate -- he had barely a year to come to grips with the new situation before he retired.

Talk of Gandhi shifting base also smacks of bad timing. It comes in the middle of a visit being planned to SA by Prime Minister I K Gujral, either en route to his trip to New York towards the end of September for the UN general assembly session or after the US visit.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.