Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 03:03 am:

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New Delhi has heaved a huge sigh of relief now that the US Administration appears to have withheld a nuclear deal with Pakistan. But the fact that India was on tenterhooks for several days as a flamboyant Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, started the Strategic Dialogue with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton last week carries its own story. In other words, the Government here had no clue of what could be the outcome of the dialogue, especially after the US Secretary of State said earlier that her Administration would not be averse to considering Pakistan's plea to replicate the nuclear deal that the US has with India. This demand was part of Islamabad's 56-page wishlist presented to Washington, DC, presumably as advance payment for its reported commitment to bail President Barack Obama out of the Afghanistan imbroglio.

Although Mr Qureshi may have had to return home without America's public commitment to a nuclear deal, it is not clear if the US has ruled it out altogether or merely deferred it to see if Pakistan actualises some of its apparent pledges on Afghanistan. Judging by the manner Washington is cold-shouldering us, particularly over New Delhi's future role in Kabul, it seems the Obama Administration proposes to hasten its 'tilt' towards Pakistan slowly but surely. American strategists have concluded that an Indian role in post-Nato Afghanistan will hinder rather than help both their proposed pull-out in the next two years as also a possible settlement with the 'good' Taliban — a creature that exists only in White House's fertile imagination.

So after expending huge resources, material, moral and human, on the Afghan peace process, India is being told "Thank you, but no thank you." Those Afghans who mortally fear a return of the bloodthirsty Taliban to Kabul may continue to plead with New Delhi not to abandon them. But Mr Manmohan Singh is no Mrs Indira Gandhi — he is not even Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee — to stand up to Washington's diktat. "Pack-up" is the unstated message going out to Indians serving in various capacities, often risking their life and limb, in war-ravaged Afghanistan. One can only pray that our role eventually does not get reduced to finding suitable accommodation in New Delhi for members of the present Kabul establishment — the way butchered former President Najibullah's family was resettled here.

At the risk of being called unpatriotic, I dare say that the treatment we are getting at America's hands is fully deserved. Plainly, we asked for it. India's utility to America's long-term interests in this region got over the day we signed the highly unequal nuclear deal. Unfortunately, Mr Manmohan Singh was able to sell the concoction that the deal was in India's own interest; that unlimited power will surge through the National Grid as a result of nuclear reactors flush with uranium generating huge amounts of electricity. We were also misled by the previous UPA Government's propaganda that by signing on the dotted line India has gained acceptance as a nuclear weapons state. That, in turn, it was suggested, would deliver permanent membership of the UN Security Council on a platter.

When the BJP and other parties stridently opposed the deal and the Left parties pulled out their support, the Congress ran away with public sympathy primarily because the opinion-making middle class detested Marxist interference in the Government's functioning. Many BJP sympathisers too were vocal in arguing that the main Opposition should not have obstructed the deal because, first, they were convinced that it was good for India and, second, they thought that the BJP was going against its core beliefs by appearing hostile to the US. Few read, leave alone understood, the fine print.

That India would lose the right to test nuclear weapons hardly seemed to matter to India's effete middle class. That a mere six per cent of India's power needs would be serviced by cost inefficient nuclear reactors was never fully comprehended. Nobody at that point had heard about the Nuclear Civil Liability law that places the value of an Indian's life at less than 10 per cent an American's. That only Western manufacturers of astronomically priced nuclear reactors would be the beneficiaries of the deal was happily overlooked. Most importantly, a Pakistan-obsessed nation was bloated with pride that our nuclear blackmarketing neighbour was summarily denied a similar 'favour'. Bolstered by the success of its propaganda, the Congress routed the BJP in the latter's urban strongholds and swept back to power with an enhanced mandate. Payback time had to come. And it's upon us now.

It may well be asked if the deal is so bad why is Pakistan hankering after it? First, Pakistan needs international legitimacy much more than India, which for all its foreign policy infirmities is not a serial law-breaker. Only a year ago Pakistan was widely viewed as the source of global jihadi terror, sponsor of Taliban, destabiliser of Afghanistan, culpable for sustained mayhem in Jammu & Kashmir and the rest of India, even harbourer of Osama bin Laden. There is nothing to suggest that Islamabad has changed track on any of these. But it is Washington that has lost the stomach to fight.

Second, treaties and international covenants have never been sacrosanct for Pakistan. For decades, AQ Khan merrily smuggled nuclear equipment and technology in and out of his country, dealt openly for manufacture of missiles with global rogue North Korea, under China’s benign gaze. So it would be naïve to expect Islamabad to conform to each letter of any nuclear deal it strikes with the US. There was a time when the US dreaded the prospect of Pakistan's nuclear facilities falling into the hands of "mad mullahs" of the Taliban. Now that Islamabad has charmed the West into believing that most of the Taliban are actually cuddly pussycats hiding behind menacing beards and can be converted into soft-spoken peaceniks provided Pakistan is designated sole negotiator with them, the Obama Administration appears ready to suspend disbelief and willingly fall into the trap. Meanwhile, pending the nuclear deal, Americans are piling on more financial and military aid for Pakistan to conduct its war against terror, forgetting that Islamabad itself has sponsored that for years.

What can India do in these circumstances? Precious little, I should think. The way Washington has engaged in doublespeak on the interrogation of Mumbai 26/11 mastermind, David Headley, is sufficient proof of the respect Americans have towards Indian sensitivities. But the root of the problem is that we have a Government that delights in crawling when merely asked to bend. With that kind of a slavish mindset there is hardly any possibility that India can stand up to the disdain shown towards us. We have to thus depend on the Opposition, not Government, to assert the national interest. As a starter, Parliament must vigorously reject the humiliating Nuclear Liability Bill to send out the message that India still retains a backbone even if that is not apparent from the Government's pusillanimity.

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