US opens dialogue with BJP leadership -Govindacharya in the U.S
The US interest in understanding India's political changes after the Lok Sabha polls have led American lawmakers and State Department officials to hold discussions with a visiting senior BJP general secretary last week.
Although the interactions with Mr K N Govindacharya were described as a routine, it was the first contact at the party-level after the polls returned the BJP to power. On his part, Mr Govindacharya is to present a report to the Prime Minister and other BJP leaders on his talks in the US, which is expected to serve as an important input in the ongoing dialogue between India and the US.
Since the return of the Vajpayee Government, Washington policy makers are keen to understand the mind of the BJP, the main player in the National Democratic Alliance Government. The Western media's description of the BJP as a "Hindu nationalist party" with close links to the "Hindu militants" have led to apprehensions in several quarters in that country. Mr Govindacharya represents the hard-core RSS in the BJP and is seen as a senior ideologue, who articulates the views of the Sangh Parivar on several issues like the CTBT, Kashmir, insurance and the opposition to religious conversion.
It was no coincidence that during his visit, the US leaders engaged Mr Govindacharya on these issues, seeking to understand the BJP's mind as well as the Sangh Parivar. The American political and business leaders sought to known from him about the growth of the BJP as a political party and its "symbiotic" relationship with the RSS and its affiliates. His visit was at the invitation of the Overseas Friends of the BJP in America but the External Affairs Ministry and the US State Department coordinated his meetings with US leaders in New York, Washington and Los Angeles.
Washington, Mr Govindacharya visited the US State Department, where he held discussions with US Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth, who looks after South Asia. He met the members of a State Department Policy Group on South Asia, who quizzed him on the BJP's stand on the pace of economic reforms, nuclear policy and the Kashmir problem. He also met more than a dozen US Congressional leaders including those part of the "India Caucus". Mr Govindacharya said he saw a significant change in the US's position towards India and scope for further growth in the ties between the two countries. "More and more Americans see India emerging as an important player," he said. "But homework needs to be done on what the US expects of India and we expect of them."
Mr Govindacharya said he saw the US was still focused on Pakistan despite the return of the military rule there. He said Washington leaders viewed Pakistan as the most modern face of Islam, whose importance lay in acting as a bridge between the US and other Muslim nations. Mr Govindacharya compared the Indo-Pak conflict on Kashmir to the West Asia problem. "Just as handing over a strip of land in Gaza cannot solve the Palestine problem, it cannot be assumed that Pakistan's problems with India, which has a 1000-year-old origin, will be solved if the Kashmir issue is cleared."
The BJP general secretary told the US leaders that India was in favour of liberalisation but could not accept free market as a panacea for all of its problems. "Our problem is that 150 million people need jobs to survive and 40 per cent of India's population needs basic things of life," he said. "Obviously, the western model will not work here." Mr Govindacharya, who met former US Ambassador Frank Wisner, also spoke on the opening-up of the insurance sector.
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