Why Uncle Sam continually ignores India

Ravi Kapoor

It is, apparently, a great paradox of recent times that the US seeks the support of Pakistan, the great engine-house of jehad, in its war against terrorism. On the other hand, India — which has been at the receiving end of Islamic militancy and has been itching to join ranks with the US — has been almost completely ignored, not only by US policy makers but also Western media and defence experts.

The apparent paradox, however, should be seen in the context of Indo-US ties since Independence. Bilateral ties have always been marked by acrimony mixed with suspicion. The first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, never concealed his love for socialism. This translated into the strangulation of the economy at home and a flirtation with the Soviet Union abroad, something that seriously antagonised the US. Nehru’s alter ego, V K Krishna Menon, was pathologically anti-American.

Not surprisingly, we recognised communist China; the US recognised Formosa under the nationalists (It is another matter that later the same communist China became our enemy, attacked us, gobbled up our territory, became a friend of Pakistan’s and, eventually, its relations with the US also improved. It even became a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations, while we were busy with and perfectly happy organising useless jamborees of non-aligned countries). In Korea too, India’s tilt towards the socialist countries was quite obvious.

During the Vietnam war, the establishment at home was infested with Leftist elements of various hues. The result was shrill criticism of the US at every available forum. Ditto with the American operations in Afghanistan. Even the collapse of socialism the world over did not result in the waning of Leftist influence in our foreign office. When the US was about the start its war against Iraq a decade ago, our socialism-loving and America-hating foreign minister Inder Kumar Gujral went to Baghdad, hugged Saddam Hussein, and called him a great statesman of the world.

And now we expect the US to do our dirty job: that is, to exterminate terrorism from the face of the earth. The Indian ruling class resembles the Bourbons — they have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Our ministers ritualistically lambast multinationals as East India Companies; our intellectual class, one of the last bastions of socialism in the world, demonises America; our media spreads disinformation about the US; our non-governmental organisations campaign against American imperialism; and our irrational rules and regulations drive out Cogentrix and Enron. Yet, we want America to do what we want it to do and dump its traditional and trustworthy ally, Pakistan.

In reality, there is no paradox. The US is doing what it thinks is right.