MICHAEL-

A strange situation of apparently contradictory facets marks the present phase of India’s relationship with the United States of America.
Of late, there is a surfeit of talks about “shared values” ranging from commitment to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. To this has been added in recent months, the government’s new economic policy which plays up private enterprise and underplays public sector—at least that’s how it has been taken in the USA. And the government, in the President’s Address to Parliament, has publicly acknowledged that the US Administration has been “supportive” of our endeavor to fight back the economic crisis—presumably in the IMF and the World Bank.
This tilt towards the USA has been pronounced after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the superficial understanding that the world has become unipolar, that is, instead of two superpowers, we would now be under the thumb of one and only one superpower. With the wisdom that discretion is the better part of valor, there has appeared a conspicuous urge to cultivate the USA and to be on the right side of Washington. This was heightened by the American display of military power in the Gulf War.
Our government’s response to certain US diplomatic moves betrayed a very superficial understanding of the basics of the US policy. For quite sometimes, there was a sense of elation that Washington now acknowledges India as a “significant regional power”, playing a leading role in South Asia. This was followed by the US officials volunteering to recognize Kashmir as being part of India and to give up its previous insistence on plebiscite to settle the Kashmir dispute. On the formal plane, this was of course a shift in the US position which, on the face of it, undermines the Pakistani claim on Kashmir.
What is noteworthy is that in the very same period there has been a concerted campaign about the violation of human rights in Kashmir by the Indian security forces. In other words, a case was being built up with plenty of sophistication about India being unacceptable to the entire Kashmiri population in the Valley—and this might help to build up an alibi for UN mediation, maybe through the personal diplomacy of the UN Secretary-General, or a special envoy nominated by him, as was done in the case of Afghanistan. This view can of course be contested since it is reported that the US establishment now does not charge India of having been guilty of violation of human rights either in Punjab or in Kashmir. Could this possibly be a genuinely sincere assessment, or is it a tactical move, since it is known that the big powers cynically exploit the human rights question for purposes of political expediency? It is possible that the sop itself is a sort of quid pro quo extracted from India. Is this in return for the diplomatic recognition of Israel accorded by New Delhi, or for inveigling India to go in for nuclear non-proliferation even if it could not be persuaded to sign the NPT?
The nuclear issue has become an obsession on the part of Washington. There is no serious urge for nuclear disarmament on the part of the USA. In such circumstances, this insistence on nuclear non-proliferation being imposed on the rest of the world amounts to Washington making a bid for using nuclear monopoly to establish its world hegemony. Unmistakably, the US approach to the nuclear question has a distinct touch of the White Man’s superiority—no worry if the nuclear weapons are in the possession of Russia, but it becomes a matter of worry if Kazakhstan retains the nuclear installation. There is all the worry in the world if India and Pakistan have the bomb or for that matter, Iran and Iraq, but no disquiet at all over Israel’s nuclear programme.
With regard to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons preparedness, the US Administration uses it as leverage for pressure on India to sign at least a bilateral non-proliferation declaration. It is important to note that the Pakistan Foreign Secretary’s disclosure of Pakistan’s nuclear weapon capability came during his Washington visit, and this is being neatly suffixed by the stand that an Indian initiative for non-proliferation can help to persuade Pakistan also to abjure the nuclear weapon. The point to note, however, is that with all the threat of penalizing Pakistan for making the nuclear bomb, the US Administration itself has sanctioned the sale of conventional military weaponry to Pakistan.
What is also rather extraordinary is that the Indian Government is telling the US Government to persuade two of our neighbors, China and Pakistan, to agree to nuclear non-proliferation. This is a job which New Delhi ought to take up on its own.
In this background, one has to weigh the pros and cons of the emerging Indo-US cooperation in the field of defense. What is being held back from the public of this country is the full picture of this cooperation and its implications. There are many strange features of this cooperation which have rapidly grown in the last one year, particularly after the visit of our Army Chief, General Rodriguez, to the Pentagon. Could it be that this Pentagon yatra gave him ideas which he recently aired landing himself in hot waters in Parliament? It is amazing that the now famous Kicklighter proposals were agreed to without any political debate in Parliament or any consultation with leaders of other parties despite the fact that the ruling party itself does not command a majority in Parliament. What exactly is the role of the newly set-up Indo-US Army Steering Committee? It is said that this military cooperation would help the Indian side in getting familiar with the nature and operation of the hi-tech weapons used by the US in the Gulf War.
Now we find that a joint Indo-US naval exercise will soon take place in the Indian Ocean. Oddly enough, our Prime Minister during his visit to Mauritius last week formally supported the island republic’s claim on the archipelago that includes Diego Garcia, now the biggest US military base in the Indian Ocean, which will certainly be involved in the proposed joint Indo-US naval exercise. Incidentally, it may be recalled that the Indian Navy did not have any such joint naval exercise with the Soviet Navy despite the fact that the Soviet cooperation towards the building up of the Indian Navy is of no mean order.