The Hindu : Unequal friends

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 17, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Unequal friends

By M.R. Srinivasan

The organisers of a conference on `Science, sustainability and security' held in California invited me to attend it. All arrangements were made in early August to travel to the United States for this purpose. Even after taking three full days with all documentation submitted, the U.S. Embassy in Delhi did not issue a visa. So the plans to attend the California meeting were abandoned. It appears that the U.S. Government introduced a procedure of prior clearance from Washington before visas could be issued to persons engaged in nuclear and missile work, after the Pokhran-II tests of May 1998. I had retired from the Department of Atomic Energy in February 1992.

Our leaders keep telling us that India and the U.S. are natural partners. Many commentators, both American and Indian, talk of strengthening and deepening bilateral relations in many fields including military-to-military cooperation. Yet, it does not appear that the Government of India has been able to prevail upon the U.S. to withdraw a needless travel irritant to a section of the Indian community. Contrast this to India having to receive a stream of U.S. dignitaries almost everyday and patiently listen to lectures on how we should handle Kashmir. These U.S. visitors are not satisfied until they are given time by the Prime Minister himself.

Another irritant is the denial to India of dual use technology items on the ground that such export would aid nuclear proliferation. This to a country that is already a declared nuclear weapon power is indeed ridiculous. India is a country that offered all help and cooperation to the U.S. to fight terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. In the case of Pakistan, the U.S. has made all kinds of exceptions to its own rules and regulations to allow financial aid, debt waiver and military supplies. The U.S. claims to support democracy and oppose military dictatorship remain to be empty rhetoric. The U.S. has turned a blind eye to the massive rigging that took place when the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, conducted a referendum and won a mandate to continue as President for five more years. It is also keeping mum on the drastic changes to the Pakistan Constitution that Gen. Musharraf is making, with the sole purpose of concentrating all power in his hands.

When the U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, was in India, he said that Kashmir was on the international agenda. Given the reach of the electronic media today, events in all parts of the world can be watched worldwide. That does not confer on others the right to interfere in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation. India is being reminded that it has not been able to solve the Kashmir problem for 50 years. If there was no interference from external powers, the Kashmir problem would have been solved in the aftermath of the liberation of Bangladesh, if not earlier.

Those from across the border who say that elections in Jammu and Kashmir in the past have not been free, have themselves held no free elections. Similarly, those from across the border who talk about the safety and welfare of minorities in India, have themselves indulged in ethnic cleansing in the past. Of course, we must ensure free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir and we must do all we can to rebuild the lives of those who have suffered grievously in the unfortunate communal clashes in the recent past. But the international community must appreciate the historical background of the Kashmir imbroglio and not be even-handed towards the perpetrators of terrorist acts and their victims.

The most disturbing foreign policy initiative of the present U.S. administration is its openly stated intention to attack Iraq and force a change in the ruling regime, namely the elimination of Saddam Hussein. There are many things Saddam Hussein is guilty of. To start with, imposing a long war on Iran or annexing Kuwait is inexcusable. Equally, the reported use of chemical weapons against Kurdish nationalists is unpardonable. Saddam Hussein has imposed a harsh and repressive rule on the Iraqis which they may well be happy to get rid of. All these reasons, however, do not confer the right on the U.S. to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq or indeed the right to make pre-emptive strikes against Iraq. These actions are clearly violative of the Articles of the United Nations. If eventually carried out, they will set a bad precedent for similar actions the sole super-power (lately referred to as a hyper-power) may take on other countries, at the whims and fancies of future U.S. administrations.

Around the world, there is considerable dismay at this U.S. action. Though there is considerable opposition in the U.K, eventually Prime Minister Tony Blair will fall in line. Germany has said it cannot join the U.S. on the Iraq action but given the reason that its defence forces are fully engaged in other U.N.-mandated missions. The Arab League has strongly opposed the U.S. action but eventually the conservative Arab regimes whose survival depends on the U.S, will simply lump it. Russia and China have certainly expressed their unhappiness, but may cut deals with the U.S. on other issues of concern to them.

India vitally depends on the Middle East, including Iran and Iraq for its energy supplies. Any U.S. action against Iraq is not going to be a short engagement and we may expect dislocation in oil supplies from the Middle East to last several months or even longer. Even if Saddam Hussein were to be ousted, it will take a long time for normalcy to return. One thing we can be certain of and that is that many Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists will spill out of the Middle East and could strike at soft targets in their neighbourhood, including India.

We already have enough problems with militants and do not want an escalation of such activities.

It is unclear if the U.S. has consulted countries in the region on the impact of the U.S. action or has looked upon Iraq as a purely domestic issue for the U.S. Burdened by the Pakistan-India tensions and the Kashmir problem,

India has become mute even when its vital interests are at stake. India must express its strong reservation on the infringement of sovereignty of nation states and even more so on the destabilisation and disturbance of peace in the region that the U.S. action in Iraq would set in motion.

Friendship is a two-way street and that remains so even when a hyper-power is involved.

(The writer is the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission)

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