Bringing India into line

[Jacob Levich <jlevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> US persuades India to dilute stand
>
> Asian Age, Feb. 21 2003
>
> By Seema Mustafa
>
> New Delhi, Feb. 20: Hectic backroom diplomacy by the
> United States has succeeded in persuading the Indian
> government to dilute a categorical "no war" stand on
> Iraq to a "United Nations Security Council cannot wait
> indefinitely" position articulated by finance minister
> Jaswant Singh in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
>
> Highly placed sources said the Americans have been
> targeting key ministers to water down the initial
> stand taken by the ministry of external affairs to a
> "more acceptable formula" that was stated by Mr Singh,
> who is known even in BJP circles as being
> "exceptionally close to the US."
>
> The sources said the government, under US pressure,
> had now decided to keep its options open and look for
> post-Saddam adjustments with Iraq. The key ministers
> and officials who have influence on government policy
> have been brought around to the view, through
> hard-nosed diplomacy, that the removal of Iraqi
> President Saddam Hussein is "inevitable" and India
> should keep all doors open. Washington worked hard to
> prevent a resolution on Iraq and made it clear through
> senior interlocutors that it would not like New Delhi
> to take any position in writing.
>
> Differences had cropped up between US ambassador
> Robert Blackwill and the Indian foreign office over
> the Iraq issue. Mr Blackwill had reportedly expressed
> his disapproval of Indian policy by not attending a
> new year's reception hosted at Hyderabad House by
> external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha. After a
> visit to Washington, the US ambassador had returned to
> meet Union home minister L.K. Advani and BJP president
> Venkaiah Naidu. He did not meet Mr Sinha but had
> consultations with foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal at
> the time.
>
> The sources said that Washington has been in direct
> touch with senior ministers as well as officials in
> the Prime Minister's Office on the issue of Iraq. The
> first impact of the new thinking in the government on
> Iraq was felt in the Lok Sabha when a resolution on
> the issue was deliberately blocked. This was shortly
> after the Opposition leaders had been told by
> parliamentary affairs minister Sushma Swaraj
> informally that there would be no problem with a
> united parliamentary resolution on Iraq. A senior MP
> said he was surprised to see that she had changed her
> stance in the business advisory committee to insist
> that there was no need for a resolution as it would
> unnecessarily reduce the flexibility of the government
> on this important issue.
>
> Mr Sinha was in Moscow and his place was taken by Mr
> Jaswant Singh, who replied to the debate on Iraq. Mr
> Singh did not reiterate the earlier position of the
> foreign office, which had come out against a war, and
> instead spoke of "war being the last option." He also
> said the UN Security Council cannot wait indefinitely
> for action, a position that has been stated and
> re-stated by the Bush administration and British Prime
> Minister Tony Blair. Opposition leaders who wanted
> India to take a position closer to France admitted
> they were "totally disappointed" with the CPI(M)
> Politburo being moved sufficiently to issue a
> statement questioning the motives of the government.
>
> There is some confusion in the RSS, reflected in its
> journal, the Organiser. An editorial supports a "no
> war" position, stating towards the end, "War never was
> the only solution and after the Blix report, it is not
> even the proverbial last solution." An article by an
> ideologue in the same issue titled "India Need Not
> Confront US on Iraq, however, seeks to remind the
> readers, "No non-aligned nation uttered even a word of
> support for us when China attacked us in 1962. It was
> the Western countries, particularly US and UK, that
> New Delhi had condemned time and again, that stood by
> us in our hour of grief and rushed military assistance
> to us. Let us learn some lessons from recent history
> and refrain from doing anything that may sour our
> relations with US."
>
> Interestingly, when MPs urged the government to allow
> a resolution so that Prime Minister Atal Behari
> Vajpayee could carry the anti-war sentiments of
> Parliament to the non-aligned meeting, Ms Sushma
> Swaraj told them there were differences in the House
> on the issue but that the spirit of the discussion
> would be conveyed to the Nam meeting.




~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.