Date:15/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/01/15/stories/2004011507271300.htm

National

Opposition poser on Indo-U.S. ties

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 14. The Congress and the Left parties today posed questions about the direction of Indo-U.S. ties, with the former demanding that the Centre come clean on the role of the Bush administration in the present thaw, while the Left questioned the "strategic ties" between New Delhi and Washington.

The Congress expressed concern over the statement of the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell that the Bush administration had played a crucial role in bringing the Vajpayee Government to the negotiating table with Pakistan.

While reiterating that the party has been a consistent advocate of constructive engagement with Islamabad, the Congress said it was the Bharatiya Janata Party which had made a political career of Pakistan-bashing. "Prime Minister Vajpayee has blown hot and cold over Pakistan, focussed it would appear, not so much on national security but on projecting himself now as a furious hawk and again as a statesmanlike dove," the party spokesperson, Abhishek Singhvi, said.

The party sought to know whether the Vajpayee Government got pushed to the negotiating table with Pakistan and what it did with the Bush administration for the last two years. "Vajpayee must stop beating around the bush and come clean," the party said.

Reacting to the announcement by the U.S. and Indian Governments about expanding the strategic partnership between the two countries in the realm of nuclear, space and high technology, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it was not just "what it is being touted to be but one more step taken by the Vajpayee Government to make India part of the United States' global strategic plans."

The commitment made by India to discuss cooperation with the American Missile Defence System was most objectionable, it said, adding that the Vajpayee Government was the first one to endorse Mr. Bush's strategic version of nuclear security and the Nuclear Missile Defence (NMD) system in May 2001. Even when other major countries of the world refused to subscribe to the new missile defence system, the Vajpayee Government showed eagerness to be part of the new ballistic missile defence system. Further, the joint announcement showed that American concerns regarding nuclear proliferation were paramount while there were no concrete measures enabling India to access high technology.

"The BJP-led Government has been set on the course of acquiescing in the U.S. drive for global hegemony and new militarisation in turn for the U.S. acceptance of India's nuclear weapon status,'' the CPI(M) politburo said in a statement. While opposing "this pro-US policy'' it demanded that the Vajpayee Government desist from making India party to American strategic plans.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) central committee said the "growing U.S. intervention in our national life will further weaken and destroy our national resources and economy and endanger crucial strategic independence and national sovereignty." It said that any alliance with the U.S. would mar the process of strengthening ties with the nations of South Asia and South-East Asia.