India�s Lower House parliamentarians, the Indian media and the Indian strategic community have been livid in the last week with the directions in which India�s Prime Minister has moved the country� foreign policy. In a strange coincidence of foreign policy related events the main charge against the Congress Prime Minister leveled in different quarters is that the Congress Government has been supine in bending over backwards to accommodate United States policy priorities and dictates. The Government is accused of appeasing the United States to the detriment of India�s national security interests. The focus of India�s anger has been the virtual sell-out to Pakistan, supposedly under US pressure in the Joint Statement issued by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan at the NAM meeting at Sharam-al-Sheikh in Egypt. The second focus of anger has been the sweeping open-ended End-User Agreement signed with the United States to cover defense purchases from the United States. The third charge is focused on removing under US pressure India�s former Commerce Minister Mr. Kamal Nath to a different portfolio as he used to strongly oppose US dictates on trade issues.

It needs to be recorded that Indians at large are the most pro-American people in the world unlike the Pakistanis. But Indians are very obsessive about India�s foreign policy and strategic autonomy. If the Congress Government had been cautious and cognizant of this fact then it would have scrupulously avoided the timing and the contents of these Agreements.

The Indo-Pak Joint Statement with India conceding to Pakistan that it would resume the Composite Dialogue by de-linking it with terrorism and including the references to Pakistan�s implied Indian interference in Balochistan ,came through just before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton�s visit to New Delhi last week. Since in the period preceding the visit, India was being put under sustained pressure by the United Sates to engage Pakistan in order to induce it to contribute effectively to US Af-Pak Policy, the inescapable conclusion was that the Indian Prime Minister had buckled under United States pressure. The Congress Party machine also distanced itself from the Prime Minister signing such a controversial Joint Declaration.

There was no infernal hurry or compulsions to sign the End-User Agreement with USA. So far defense purchases from USA were being covered by item-specific End-User Agreements. If this present Agreement is a signal that the Congress Government intends to indulge in large scale defense purchases from the United States then more intense and vocal controversies await it as India�s strategic community and military professionals do not seem to relish the prospects of reliance on the United States as the main supplier of India�s defense needs.

There was no political imperative for Dr Manmohan Singh to displace Mr. Kamal Nath from the Commerce Minster portfolio which he was handling with effectiveness and dynamism. Yes, he was tough and firm in trade negotiations which possibly were not favored by the United States.

That these events surfaced coincident with US Secretary of State�s visit robbed the visit of the significance of her first official visit to India. It was also overshadowed by Mumbai 9/11 accused Kasab�s confessions that Pakistan�s official agencies and their sponsored terrorist outfits were complicit in that mayhem. This added fuel to the controversial Joint Statement absolving Pakistan of terrorism against India. The extended coverage of these confessions blacked out virtually the closing stages of Clinton�s visit.

Some major deductions that arise from the last week�s developments which need emphasis are as follows:

• Indian Prime Ministers cannot afford to conduct India�s foreign policy without bi-partisan support and taking the Parliament in confidence.
• The above is more applicable when it dwells on Pakistan and China related issues of national security.
• The United States policy establishment also needs to take the above considerations into account in its foreign policy approaches to India. The Congress Party no longer holds an unchallenged primacy in India�s national life and nor is Dr Manmohan Singh a charismatic leader who would be blindly followed by the people of India.

Regrettably, in terms of advancement of their respective foreign policy interests, India, the United States and Pakistan can all be said to have lost out with the outcome of last week�s foreign policy developments.

July 26, 2009

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