Indo-US cold vibes

A US diplomat was heard lamenting on Delhi’s cocktail circuit recently that he’s feeling like a pariah these days. His dramatic claim may be exaggerated but to any one who tracks foreign policy, it’s been evident for some months now that the Americans are rapidly losing their most favoured status on Raisina Hill. Ever since the nuclear explosion in Congress-Left ties, the government has taken to treating Uncle Sam like a lover it no longer wants to acknowledge, a guilty secret to be hidden away till the elections are over.

Do aspiring great nations play shabby games with foreign policy? Apparently yes, when a government loses its way in the minefield of domestic politics. And it can get as petty as refusing shore passes to US marines. (They only wanted to play basketball in Goa after two days of gruelling manoeuvres in the Arabian Sea as part of the annual Konkan joint naval exercises last month.)

The sharp U-turn in India’s US policy is most obvious in defence and strategic matters. The government has been pointedly cold shouldering any initiative that could be construed, even vaguely, as doing a tango with Washington. For instance, a scheduled meeting of a sub-group of the Indo-US Defence Policy Group was cancelled at the last moment a few weeks ago without any coherent explanation.

The government is now dragging its feet about fixing new dates and scheduling meetings for the other three sub-groups. The DPG is supposed to steer defence ties in different areas like military cooperation, technology transfers, procurement and so on. It  has met eight times so far. Now, the ninth one is in jeopardy  as the UPA government falters in  crafting a relationship that has got too hot to handle. Similarly, the DRDO has been told to freeze proposals for ventures with the US for the time being. The informal directive came on the heels of a successful mission to the US to explore cooperation in defence technologies.

The manner in which the pendulum has swung the other way raises serious questions about the government’s coherence on the policy front. While the Indo-US love affair bloomed, the Americans were the Big Daddies on Raisina Hill. Today, they are being slapped back and told to shrink profile and presence on the national stage. Surely, foreign policy demands a more mature approach to bilateral relations. If India is to take a right turn towards the US, the proponents of this paradigm shift need to prepare the ground for it through public debate. It cannot be pushed through, using the nuclear deal as a battering ram to demolish 60 years of mutual suspicion and Cold War mindsets. It called for better political management, both within the ruling alliance and in the country as a whole. Instead, the Indo-US  relationship has been left hanging in mid-air for the next governments in Washington and New Delhi to rescue.

TAILPIECE

The pariah feeling hasn’t afflicted Israeli diplomats despite the Left’s open war on India’s defence ties with Tel Aviv. The reception hosted by the Israeli ambassador to India to mark his country’s national day recently was overflowing with guests of all manner. The line to get in was so long that it stretched from the door to the ballroom on the first floor, down the stairs and out into the lobby corridor! Arguably, a highly successful PR exercise by a nation India recognised less than two decades ago.

Email : a_jerath@dnaindia.net