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PlainSpeak
United States Congress
at Critical Crossroads with India
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
The United
States Congress finds itself today at critical cross-roads with India on
the subject of the passage of the United States-India civil nuclear deal
which the United States and India signed on July 18, 2005 at the summit
in Washington. In pursuance of the above, the Bush administration has
introduced draft legislation in both Houses of the Congress to set its
seal for approval on the waivers required to move ahead.
Enough has
been written and analyzed on the various aspects and implications of the
deal and the draft legislation. It is not the intention to flog these
details once again here, but focus on the major issues which the US
Congress should bear in mind before derailing this deal.
In the run-up
to the introduction of the waiver legislation in the US Congress by the
Bush Administration, there was comparatively more overwhelming
controversies raked up on Capitol Hill, than in India. It is still
on-going on Capitol Hill despite some very eloquent, factual and
convincing testimonies given by US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice
and Under Secretaries of State, Burns and Joseph on the strategic
advantages that accrue to the United States from a passage of this deal.
The US
Congress today is at critical cross-roads with India in that it has to
decide whether it should allow itself to defeat the US-India nuclear
deal under the combined pressure of the Chinese and Pakistani lobbyists
on Capitol Hill and the non-proliferation storm-troopers that abound in
Washington.
China and
Pakistan, singly and in unison, have been strongly opposed to the
overall evolution of a United States-India strategic partnership and
more specifically the US-India civil nuclear deal. China and Pakistan
are engaged in an ongoing frenetic rearguard action on Capitol Hill to
scuttle the US-India nuclear deal. This was expected, and also that they
would drive a subtle but determined campaign to wreck the US-India civil
nuclear deal. Their reasons being strategic, as a strong US-India
strategic partnership checkmates their strategic ambitions, which in any
future perspective are not US friendly, to say, in the least.
What however
is inexplicable to India at large is that what exactly worries the
Honorable Members of the US Congress who have been airing their
objections or those who are still sitting on the fence and doubtful
about the deal. The same is the case with the American non-proliferation
storm-troopers and especially those from scientists/scientific
think-tanks.
As patriotic
Americans, the prime consideration for them should be whether United
States national security interests are served or not, and not what China
(an emerging threat in US national security perceptions) or Pakistan (a
WMD proliferator and complicit in 9/11 bombings) think.
The Honorable Members of the US Congress need only to ponder on the
issues stated below to arrive at a positive decision:
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United
States Can Stay Embedded in Asia Only With a Strategic Partnership
With India.
-
US-India
Civil Nuclear Deal’s Significance Is Political and Strategic.
-
US
Congress Policy Attitudes Towards India Need Re-invention.
-
US-India
Strategic Partnership Would Unravel, Should US Congress De-rail the
Nuclear Deal.
-
This
paper, without taking too much time of the Honorable Members of the
US Congress would dwell briefly on the above issues.
-
United
States Can Stay Embedded in Asia Only With a Strategic Partnership
with India
Asia in the
21st century presents a forbidding picture to the United States in terms
of her national security interests. A rapidly threatening China, a
resurgent Russia and an extremely hostile and violent Muslim world
confronts the United States. Military flashpoints that are confronting
or likely to confront the United States can be listed as Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rapidly rising military power of China,
aimed at expelling US military presence in East Asia. Taiwan would
emerge as the pretext and the flashpoint.
In the vast expanse of Asia, extending from the Mediterranean to the
Pacific, the United States has only three "natural allies". These are
Israel, India and Japan--all nations of consequence, politically stable
and democratic.
In terms of Israel and Japan, the US Congress does not seem to have
displayed any strategic concerns. Then why on India? In relation to
Israel and Japan, which are on the peripheries of Asia, the
geo-strategic location of India both in terms of her land-mass and her
peninsular projection deep into the Indian Ocean ensure her a central
strategic role in Asian security affairs. India holds the key to the
Asian balance of power, both as a regional power in South Asia and an
emerging global power.
President Bush with great strategic vision recognized this reality and
gave shape to a strategic partnership with India in substantive terms.
This author reflected this in his comments carried in Washington’s UPI
feature (March 2006) as follows.
"No
US President has ever articulated US commitment to assist India’s
emergence as a world class power." ... "President Bush has
given a significant new direction to a US-India strategic
partnership by setting the record straight in South Asia as to
American strategic preferences."
That holds
good for the US Congress too. It needs to take into account that a
US-India strategic partnership is an American strategic imperative and
that the US Congress should pave the way for the same with approval for
all legislative proposals that come to reinforce the strategic
partnership.
US-India Civil Nuclear Deal’s
Significance is Political and Strategic
The central aim of President Bush when he signed the agreement for a
US-India civil nuclear deal was to ensure India’s energy security needs
are met and in the process assist India to fully realize her potential
to emerge as a global power.
The aim of the US-India civil nuclear deal was not to roll-back or cap
India’s strategic nuclear arsenal. The non proliferation storm-troopers
seem to be oblivious or feign to be oblivious to this vital fact. Their
main focus is technical and theoretical and does not encompass President
Bush’s vision.
The Honorable Members of the Congress need to appreciate the following
facts:
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The
significance of the US-India nuclear deal is political and
strategic. It is not technical or theoretical.
-
Politically, the deal is a re-affirmation of the fact that the
United States and India repose a mutual trust in each other to forge
a strategic partnership arising from shared convergences of global
and regional security interests.
-
Strategically, the deal is a conscious attempt by the United States,
envisioned through its President, that if India has to be a
worthwhile strategic partner, then its latent power attributes need
to be maximized.
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India’s
civil nuclear energy programs are a critical component of India’s
economic growth and energy security, and all these assist in India's
emergence as a global power.
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India as
a strategic partner of the United States, which is a global power
under challenge, cannot be a "strategically de-fanged power" i.e.
without strategic nuclear assets.
The US-India
nuclear deal needs to be viewed by all concerned in USA in the above
perspective.
US Congress Policy Attitudes
Towards India Need Re-invention
It is suspected that many members of the US Congress still continue to
view India in Cold War perspectives. Here one would like to add that
those Cold War perspectives of India were patently wrong. While deciding
their vote on the US-India civil nuclear deal, the Honorable Members of
the US Congress need to themselves answer the following questions:
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Has India
ever been in military confrontation with the United States like
China (Korea, Vietnam)?
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Has India
like Pakistan indulged in WMD proliferation or was complicit on the
9/11 bombings?
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India is
a global power in the making, politically stable, economically
resurgent and a vibrant democracy. With such credentials, do US
lawmakers seriously believe that with a US-India nuclear deal in its
pocket, India would turn out to be a long range threat to the United
States?
The answers
to all the above is a big and resounding NO.
As this author has written elsewhere that the basic problem with the US
Congress is that for far too long, it had dealt with near-equal powers
like Russia and China, who were confrontational in their stances towards
the United States and with clashing strategic interests. For the first
time in history, the US Congress is being faced to deal on a strategic
matter with an emerging near-equal power like India which is not
confrontational to the United States, nor has India had any history of
confrontation with the United States. And therein lies a perplexing
challenge for the US Congress in de-ciphering India’s future strategic
intentions and its future impact on United States security.
The answers to the above stand asserted in the testimonies of US
Secretary of State and other officials of the State Department before
the Senate and House Committees.
As the United States and India embark on the path of a long range
strategic partnership, the US Congress needs to re-invent its policy
attitudes towards India. The US Congress would need to learn that
commensurate with India’s attributes of power, size, location and
military capabilities, the US Congress would have to be more
accommodative and respectful of India’s strategic sensitivities.
The US-India strategic partnership is an exceptional partnership in the
making and hence the US Congress also has to adopt exceptional policy
attitudes towards India.
Besides the above, the honorable members of the US Congress cannot be
oblivious and would be answerable to the millions of Indian American
voters who generously bankroll their election campaigns.
US-India Strategic Partnership Would
Unravel, Should US Congress Derail the Nuclear Deal
Partnerships are based on a sense of trust and viable strategic
partnerships evolve only with an "exceptional sense of mutual trust."
This particularly applies to the US-India strategic partnership which
took over half a century to evolve from decades of estrangement. Rightly
or otherwise, the US-India civil nuclear deal has emerged as the
centre-piece of the US-India strategic partnership. For India at large,
it defines the future credibility of a strategic partnership with the
United States.
To India at large, which is far more politically conscious than the
average American citizen, the US-India civil nuclear deal has become the
focus of overwhelming Indian public attention.
In the perceptions of India at large, it appears to them today, that it
is only the US Congress which stands in between the successful passage
of the "waivers" for the deal to go through and civil nuclear power
projects in India to start making their appearances.
It is this which led this author to assert in his comments to UPI,
Washington feature that:
"The
US Congress has to revise its attitudinal approaches towards India.
India is not a confrontational power to US national security
interests, as are China and Russia."
"If the US-India relationship goes of the rails in the future it
would be in large part due to US Congress insensitivities toward
India."
So strong and
passionate is the feeling in India on the successful culmination of the
US-India civil nuclear deal without any tinkering, additions or
conditionalities by the US Congress, that it would be an under-statement
to state that should the deal be blocked by the US Congress, the
US-India strategic partnership would unravel.
Concluding Observations
The United States and India have for far too long stood on the wrong
side of history as the world’s two remarkable democracies.
After six decades, when US President Bush and the US Administration on
one had and the Indian Government on the other hand, have moved forward
to together stand on the right side of history, the US Congress should
not become a stumbling block in this endeavor.
India in all these years has moved forward despite US sanctions. It has
moved forward gradually but surely. It will continue to do so, even if
the US-India civil nuclear deal is blocked by the US Congress for
reasons extraneous to the main issue.
At stake is not India’s future or her security. At stake is United
States national security interests and whether the United States could
stay embedded in Asia in the face of all other options ranged against
her. India is the United States best security bet in the unfolding Asian
strategic drama of the 21st century. The US Congress should not let the
United States loose this bet.
Plain-speaking, the United States today needs India strategically more
than India needing the United States. This is a harsh reality that has
to be contended with by the US Congress. This is alluded to even by
American scholars in the same UPI Washington feature carrying this
author’s views.
April 12, 2006
Courtesy:
SAAG.org with
permission from Dr. Kapila
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