The Hindu : Mid-summer madness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 15, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Mid-summer madness

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI APRIL 14. In meekly surrendering to the regressive forces of Hindutva and letting the Narendra Modi Government go to polls in Gujarat with blood on its hands, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has dashed the slender hope that he might want to salvage the agenda of his coalition Government.

Mr. Vajpayee has chosen to risk the purposefulness of his Government rather than stare down the extremists in his party and its extended family. Having put the deeply disturbing ideological agenda of his party above the Government's responsibility to rule of law, the Prime Minister has opened the doors for a hot and divisive political summer.

Just when Mr. Vajpayee should have been building on the extraordinary achievements over the last four years on the foreign policy front _ the only area where his Government has delivered _ he has allowed the ideologues of his party to undermine them. Just a few months ago, in the wake of September 11, India looked like an oasis of democratic stability in a region that was being torn apart by primitive political passions of all kinds. Now India itself will be a victim of those passions, if the BJP goes ahead with its plans to convert India into a "Hindu Pakistan".

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One wonders what the Indian military leadership is thinking about the turn of events at home since December 13. Remember the stunning attack on the Indian Parliament? That seems to have happened ages ago. Before Ayodhya and Gujarat. After December 13, there was a rare show of national unity and the biggest military mobilisation in India's independent history with a view to end cross-border terrorism that has bled the nation for so long. Having put much of its armed forces on the front, the Vajpayee Government appears to have just forgotten about them.

There was not one word heard from Panaji, where the BJP national executive met the last few days, on the unprecedented external security context of the nation. Does the ruling party expect to fight the war against cross-border terrorism, or at least derive the maximum benefits from its coercive diplomacy, by unleashing a civil war at home? Will the Army man the borders or enforce curfews all over the country this summer to quell the raging communal violence?

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Just because India is gazing at its own navel, the rest of the world does not cease to exist. As India turns inwards after throwing the Army at the borders with Pakistan, it has given a huge breather to Pervez Musharraf who is busy campaigning in a one-horse race for President. Once he completes the charade of a referendum that will crown him President for five more years and brings in the necessary constitutional amendments that will make him the top gun of Pakistani polity, Gen. Musharraf will certainly turn his attention to India. A communally polarised and politically divided India this summer will be an inviting target.

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Who else is busy pulling down India's foreign policy, other than the BJP? The Commerce Ministry, of course. Both in Nepal and in Bangladesh where he was recently negotiating trade deals, the Commerce Secretary, Dipak Chatterjee seems to have reinforced the image of the "ugly Indian" that is so prevalent in our immediate neighbourhood. If media reports in Nepal and Bangladesh are to be believed, Mr. Chatterjee has won no friends for India in either country. Mr. Chatterjee would of course argue that winning friends is the business of another department _ the Foreign Office. That flag follows commerce is apparently an alien notion at the Commerce Ministry.

It is not that our neighbours are easy customers to deal with. They can be cussed and often put more emphasis on standing up to India than on pursuing enlightened self-interest. But that is part of the game of dealing with our neighbours who bristle at the perceived dominance of India. And trade talks are always tough among neighbours.

But the real questions are somewhat different. Does India have a vision about long-term trade relations with our smaller neighbours? Does it have the imagination to take the historic opportunity to end the economic partition of the subcontinent by promoting commercial integration of the region? The answer from the Commerce Ministry to all of the above appears to be a resounding "no".

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Kanwal Sibal, until recently India's Ambassador to France, has returned to take charge as the Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs. He is said to be the front-runner for the job of Foreign Secretary, when Chokila Iyer retires at the end of June. Mr. Sibal is from the 1966 batch of the Foreign Service and has served as India's Ambassador to Turkey, Egypt and as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington.

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