Manmohan's Washington Yatra By Sultan M Hali

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Washington for the first state visit hosted by the Obama Administration, expecting the trip to culminate in intensified cooperation with the United States in matters such as intelligence sharing and announcing an agreement on arrangements relating to the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, an issue that had impeded the completion of the 2005 agreement on nuclear cooperation. This is evidently intended as a token of the new administration's continuing commitment to nuclear cooperation with India, which is also looking to garner US support for securing a UN Security Council seat.
Various lobbyists have been burning the proverbial midnight oil in Washington to acquire support for India in various aspects like Ashley Tellis of Carnegie Endowment for the UN Security Council slot and - Selig Harrison of Woodrow Wilson International Centre to get India to play an even bigger role in Afghanistan. However, the think tanks in Washington and the powers that be must rethink the prospects of this unnatural strategic alliance. The US is perhaps betting on the wrong horse. If the US is propping up India to be a bulwark against China, it must take cognisance of the factor that India neither has the will nor the courage in the real sense to confront China. The scars of its thrashing at the hands of the Chinese in 1962 still run deep. Moreover, despite all its arms build-up and war preparations, India is no match for China. It also knows that China is next door while the US will not be able to come to its aid in time from thousands of kilometres away if actual hostilities breakout. The US think tanks should use pragmatism to weigh their relations with India. They should have learnt a lesson from history, when during the First World War, they were let down by their strategic allies Italy and France through deceit and double play when the German forces attacked them. The US investment in India's capacity building is likely to be an excessive and cost prohibiting exercise. India remains a satellite of Russia; it has learnt its lessons well from the Cold War era, when it was ignored by the west because of its ties with the erstwhile Soviet Union. It has mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. With US approval, Israel has been providing the latest and most lethal weapons to India in a bid to wean it away from Russia but the Indians are making hay while the sun shines, acquiring weapons and technology both from Israel and Russia, while the US Military Industrial Complex is also wooing Indian market for defence sales. The Indo-US alliance is unnatural. Americans are mostly candid, outspoken and veracious while the Indians, being ardent followers of Chanakya, have perfected the skill of doublespeak, saying something and meaning something different. Moreover, the Marxists in Indian realpolitik will never let an Indo-US alliance succeed. The Maoists in India are already fomenting trouble in a majority of states and not at the behest of Pakistan but as a retaliation of the Indian government's own policies. Afghanistan is slipping away from the US and NATO due to Indian surreptitious support to the terrorists, in a bid to destabilise Pakistan. Billions of dollars and sacrifices of young Americans are being wasted in Afghanistan due to Indian help to Taliban. Indians are locked at punishing Pakistan without realising the implications of helping Taliban. Americans' tacit approval to bring India in Afghanistan's imbroglio has in fact made the US mission more difficult. Its announcement to make India as the regional boss is a farce. On exit of the US, India's presence in Afghanistan is only going to sully the waters and contribute to a major catastrophe. CIA Director Leon Panetta's low-key visit to Islamabad last week culminated in ISI Chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha presenting concrete evidence of the miscreants being aided and abetted by Indian RAW and American CIA for launching attacks to destabilise Pakistan for the attainment of their objectives. The CIA director's reaction to the proof provided by his ISI counterpart is not known but he must have shared Pakistan's concerns with New Delhi. He reportedly briefed India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan before his departure for Washington with the Indian prime minister. He called on RAW Chief K C Verma and Indian Intelligence Bureau Chief Rajeev Mathur over the weekend. The US is free to make whatever alliance it seeks in the region as long as it ensures long term peace but if it is to be duped by the glamour of "India Shining", which is a farce, then surely it is making the wrong choice. Economic base of India is like a mirage at the global level. 20 percent Dalits and 17 percent Muslims in India are a supposed liability. Poor masses of India will be a drag for the US economy. Misled by Indian propagandists of the opulence of India, the size of its market and its capacity to generate revenue are all fixed on brittle bases, which will collapse like a house of cards. As for the people of India, they too are free to make their choice of allies, however, they must also learn from history. Pakistan was a member of the SEATO and CENTO but after the 1965 Pakistan-India War, the US instead of coming to aid Pakistan, imposed sanctions on both Pakistan and India, knowing well that it would be only Pakistan that would suffer since at that time India was dependent on the Soviet Union for all its defence needs unlike Pakistan, which was receiving US weapons. Dr Manmohan Singh is resorting to the usual rhetoric of "Pakistan not doing enough to curb terrorism" and "Pakistani nuclear weapons are unsafe", expressing suspicions of the US partnership. If the US is sincere in bringing peace to the regions, it must heed to the evidence being provided to it by Pakistan and make decisions pragmatically, as to who is sincere in curbing terrorism and who is not?

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