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INDIA AND UNITED STATES: STRATEGIC FRIENDS? 

Dr. M. V. Kamath

Some weeks ago I received a list of twenty nine Indian Americans who are presently supposedly holding high positions in the U.S Administration, including offices in the White House. The list seemed unbelievable. It was sent to me by one himself an Indian American, and for a time I felt an intense desire to publish it. But then I became hesitant. What if the list proved to be totally incorrect? Was I being taken for a ride? But then, to what purpose? After a great deal of thought I decided that I would drop the idea. It is no secret that many Indian Americans are holding top jobs in the fields of trade and commerce, as much as in the field of education like, say, Amartya Sen. We have also seen a couple of them elected to the Governorship of states. But how completely integrated are Indian Americans in American society as a whole? That is, perhaps, a matter for deep study. It was once said that a large percentage of Indian Americans had found employment in NASA which is creditable to them. Some time ago I remember reading a report that one Puneet Talwar has been nominated by President Obama to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for political and Military Affairs. President Obama is generally taken to be India-friendly and indeed has claimed that he wishes India to be a strategic partner with the U.S. It is a far cry from the early days following India gaining its independence when America knew little, or practically nothing, about us. India was for Americans a land of beggars, holy men, cows wandering in the streets and poverty anywhere. Things, naturally, have changed, and to a remarkable extent. Among the list of top Indian American names I received is one Taara Ranganathan, described as “Special Assistant to Susan Rice”. Rice is National Security Adviser who has recently supposed to have expressed her “impatience” with Indians. What has India done to merit this “impatience”? According to Shivshankar Menon, India’s “deepening strategic partnership (with the U.S) does not mean that we won’t have our differences”. As he put it, “this is inevitable between countries in different circumstances, at different levels of development and in dissimilar geopolitical situations”. But the U.S apparently does not trust India. It comes as a shock to learn that two of the most important nerve-centres of Indian diplomacy outside the country – the Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations and the Embassy in Washington DC – have been targets of “such sophisticated bugs implanted by the U.S National Security Agency (NSA) that entire computer hard discs might have been copied by the American agency”. According to a lengthy and very revelatory report in The Hindu (25 September), the U.N. Mission building in New York and the Embassy premises including its Annexe in Washington were on a top-secret list of countries and missions – many of them European allies of the U.S – chosen for intensive spying. Consider the following: There is no world war on. The era of Non-Alignment has been dead for a long time. India is no friend of China to indulge in spying for it. India seems even to have, to some extent, been alienated from Russia. Indo-Russian relationship presently is not worth discussion. In such circumstances what is it that the U.S has reason to be suspicious of India? Indeed, the Left in India thinks Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is too close to US for comfort. The United States for Indian students has the greatest attraction. More Indian students want to go to the States for higher studies than to any other country, including Britain and Australia. It is stated that US. And Indian officials hold more than 30 official dialogues every year and as one commentator has noted, “India continues to believe that the Washington consensus is better than the Beijing Consensus”. For all that, reading the report on American spying is shocking. The U.S according to The Hindu has accepted its duplicity, maintaining that “the U.S gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations”, the argument being that all nations – even nations friendly between them – spy on each other, so what’s the big deal? If that can be taken as true, then the U.S spies also on the United Kingdom, France, Germany and many others and one has then to take for granted that these friendly countries react the same way towards the United States. The question is: what damage may have been done by U.S eavesdropping on India’s diplomatic centres? It is difficult to know. An Indian Embassy spokesman is reported as saying that the country’s Mission buildings have “adequate measures in place”, to safeguard secrets. One sophisticated approach would be to take nothing seriously and keep good relations going. No matter what, spying will continue and one has to accept reality. Besides, one has to remember that Indo—American relations have had several ups and downs in the past. During the Cold war, India was practically “persona non-grata”. The then Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles had summoned India’s Ambassador Vijayalakshmi Pandit to tell her that non-alignment was a sin. During the regime of Richard Nixon, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was, perhaps, the most hated person of all in the world. In his conversation with his own Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Nixon would use foul language against Indira Gandhi. But, as any philosopher would say, ‘Even this shall pass away’. Presidents and Prime Ministers come and go. Every country’s needs change with the times. If India wants anything, it is peace with everybody and prosperity for all. The important thing to remember is that technology has changed beyond imagination. Even a private conversation on the mobile can get recorded. The best thing is always to be honest and frank with each other so that there is really no need for spying—and creating mistrust. India should continue to be friendly with the U.S because it is practically the only country in the world with which it can relate easily, thanks to language and even more importantly because of a growing and substantial Indian presence in the country. May be I should publish the list I earlier mentioned to stress my point.