Laying the Bush-era ghost to rest

INSIGHT: MK Bhadrakumar

The African thinker Theophile Obenga has a thesis that it is only through a profound
‘intellectual mutation’ that the present, with its attendant modes of cognition and
perception, can be truly understood -- which in turn involves a revalorization of one’s
intellectual legacy. India is on one such root expansion of thought, breaking out of a
cognitive closure.

Obenga argued that by way of its ‘intellectual mutation’, Africa should travel all the way
to the flowering of hominization in Ancient Egypt – via the rock paintings of the Grotto-
Apollo in Namibia dating back to 28000 BC. Fortunately for India, the perceptual matrix
involves far less reaching back – a mere eight years encompassing the George W Bush
era.

However much New Delhi tried to convince Washington in recent months that the United
States still had spunk as the lone superpower, Americans remain unconvinced.
Unsurprisingly, the most bizarre statement from the American side during Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the US came from President Barack Obama’s ‘Af-Pak’
aide Richard Holbrooke.

While Obama kept harping on the special importance of according to Dr Singh the honor
of being the first foreign dignitary to Washington on a state visit during his presidency,
Holbrooke took the opposite direction to plead with the Pakistanis not to take it to heart.

Holbrooke held a two-hour press briefing to massage the Pakistani ego. He had this to
say: ‘And no one in Pakistan, and no one in any other country, should read this [Dr
Singh’s state visit] as a diminution of the importance we attach to them. It’s entirely
appropriate that someone has to have the first trip. And – it usually used to be in the
past, a European ally, but they come over in informal trips…. It [Singh’s visit] in no way
should be read as a diminution.’

New Delhi has repeatedly ignored Holbrooke’s urge to visit India, and seems to think he
is an adventurous climber in a pack of high-flying officials dealing with the Afghan
problem in Washington, but on Monday he settled scores.

Ironically, though, he ended up highlighting Obama’s Achilles’ heel. Holbrooke virtually

The US has fought not less than one hundred wars. But this is the first time that Saudi
Arabia works out the US’ exit strategy. To be sure, Dr Singh’s main problem also, as he
arrived in Washington on Monday, was that compared to his previous visit in 2005, he
was dealing with a US vastly denuded of its global influence.

The joint statement issued after the talks reaffirmed the US-India ‘global strategic
partnership’ and ‘the deepening bilateral cooperation between the world’s two largest
democracies across a broad spectrum of human endeavors’, the ‘common ideals and
complementary strengths’, the ‘shared values cherished by their peoples and espoused
by their founders’. No reason to disbelieve any of this.

Yet Dr Singh failed to realize the singular objective of his visit, which is, the
operationalization of the controversial US-India nuclear deal concluded in the Bush era. A
gnawing worry remains as regards Obama’s grit to implement the deal.
The deal was a leap in faith, promising India access to advanced ENR [Enrichment and
Reprocessing] technologies. But negotiations are proving difficult. Delhi did everything to
‘incentivize’ the American side by offering two sites where nuclear power plants imported
from the US will be set up, and showing willingness to legislate that the liability of the US
companies will be limited in case of accidents involving imported American reactors.

But the US side is just not ready to conclude an agreement on ENR. It is not that Obama
is retracting. The US compulsions are twofold: any ENR agreement needs to be situated
within the new nuclear non-proliferation architecture that the world community may
agree on, and secondly, it may complicate Obama’s strategy vis-à-vis the analogous
issue of Iran’s right to have reprocessing technology.

On balance, Washington lacks the strength to assert it shall have an ENR with India and
will still enforce its writ on the non-proliferation regime.

Overarching this, Delhi harbors disquiet about Obama’s reset of regional policies. The US’
Afghan strategy remains predicated on Pakistan’s cooperation. Washington needs a
collegiate Beijing to cope with the crisis in the US economy, which precludes the scope
for a ‘containment strategy’ towards China. In sum, Delhi feels disheartened that from a
tall pedestal as an Asian ‘balancer’ where Bush had installed India, Obama brings it down
as a sub-regional power.

However, Dr Singh’s visit has been a creditable success. India and the US launched a
wide-ranging Counterterrorism Cooperation Initiative and agreed on the ‘absolute
imperative’ to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist strikes last year.

Equally, the Obama-Singh joint statement echoes the Indian charge about Pakistani
doublespeak on terrorism. It expressed ‘grave concern’ about the continuing terrorist
threat ‘emanating from India’s neighborhood’ and agreed that ‘resolute and credible
steps must be taken to eliminate safe havens and sanctuaries that provide shelter to
terrorists and their activities…[which] undermine security and stability in the region and
around the world.’

Again, the US ‘appreciated’ India’s role in Afghanistan and ‘agreed to enhance their
respective efforts’, whereas Pakistan clamors for a roll back of the Indian presence in
Afghanistan. Obama skirted the India-Pakistan relationship, whereas Islamabad
alternatively beseeches and threatens that unless the US mediates on the Kashmir
problem, Pakistan won’t cooperate. Dr Singh would have the double satisfaction that the
US-China joint statement calling for mediation in India-Pakistan relations has been
nullified.

An innocuous-looking reference in the joint statement may hold a vital clue, where the
two leaders committed to ‘continue to pursue mutually beneficial defense cooperation’
including ‘trade and technology transfer and collaboration’. In a broader context, the US
agreed to strengthen high technology trade ‘in the spirit of their strategic dialogue and
partnership’. Evidently, the US seriously intends to participate in India’s massive arms
procurement program. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates called on Dr Singh.

To quote Dr Singh, ‘We have an expanding area of defence collaboration including the
possibility of procurement of defence equipment from the US. Our domestic private
sector defence suppliers are now allowed to have up to 26 percent foreign investment,
opening a new avenue for Indo-US collaboration in defence related activities.’

Delhi can be trusted to undertake a thorough stocktaking of the US-India relationship

Obama made amends to the glaring omission of India in his Asia-Pacific speech delivered
at Tokyo en route to China. He said: ‘India today is a rising and responsible global power.
In Asia, Indian leadership is expanding prosperity and security across the region. And the
United States welcomes and encourages India’s leadership role in helping to shape the
rise of a stable, peaceful, and prosperous Asia.

‘Beyond Asia, as the world’s largest multiethnic democracy, as one of the world’s fastest-
growing economies, and as a member of the G20, India will play a pivotal role in meeting
many challenges we face today. And this includes my top economic priority, creating
good jobs with good wages for the American people.’

The resounding words should allay Indian elites’ apprehensions regarding the drift of the
US-India partnership on Obama’s watch. Actually, Obama offers a mature relationship,
although it is not sexy enough for the daydreamers fixated on India’s ‘great power
status’. What he offers is a forward-looking relationship that is sustainable, if only the
Delhi elites have the requisite self-confidence regarding their country’s strengths and
options in an increasingly polycentric world order.

Dr Singh is ahead of most Indians in realizing the country’s inherent strength. As he put
it, ‘economic relationships are the bedrock on which social, cultural and political
relationships are built. A strategic relationship that is not underpinned by a strong
economic relationship is unlikely to prosper. On the other hand, a web of economic
relationships intensifies other business-to-business and people-to-people contacts,
promoting a deeper and better understanding… That is the kind of relationship we wish
to see with this great country, the United States.’

The most enduring outcome of Dr Singh’s visit could be that the process of laying to rest
the ghost of the Bush era, which kept butting into the Indian elitist consciousness, may
have finally begun.

The Indian elites need to wake up to the Obama era, jettisoning false hopes and
expectations that do not match the US’ declining power and influence as a superpower.
Dr Singh’s two-day sojourn in Washington kick-started this process. It needed an African-
American president to bring home to the Indians Obenga’s wisdom, which should have
been easily accessible to an ancient civilization.

PLEASE USE THE TAG LINE NIKHIL APPROVED FOR THE LAST BHADRAKUMAR COLUMN