**OT** - Has God Come to India? - Holi milan
news.bbc.co.uk
Opinion G.P. Deshpande
((The author is professor of Chinese studies at the School of International Studies, JNU.)
The air in Delhi is thick with pollution and Holi milan. William Jefferson Clinton, the 37th President of the United States, is blessing the land of Aryavarta, the largest and (perhaps) poorest democracy in the world. To be sure, the US president may visit India as often as he wants. The state council of China had told Richard Nixon that as he'd expressed the desire to visit China, they were happy to extend an invite. That was a score and eight years ago. In our case, it's reverse. Good ol' Bill might as well say that as India's PM, and that computer-crazy Telugu Desam boy from Hyderabad are dying to see him, he's happy to do them the honour of a visit. So, by the time these lines appear in print, here he'd be! With all his paraphernalia, his dog, his (i.e. Clinton's) drinking water, security establishment and Madame Albright, the rather sharp-tongued secretary of state.
The US president and his entourage have to make threatening noises before they go anywhere, except perhaps western Europe. It's not easy to talk to the French or Germans quite in a manner that a Third World people can be talked to. Madame Albright, in her characteristic candour (except it might seem as arrogance to many), has set the agenda of Clinton's five-day trip. The favourite issue of the Americans, of course, is everybody else having nuclear weapons. The US Congress can refuse to ratify the CTBT. Others, however, must sign it. Why? Because the Americans say so. Or else, there are limits to cooperation. These limits, they maintain, are imposed by US law. The omnipresent 'US law' is now the international law, or so it would appear. India must think of the US law before it thinks of its defence and security. The Americans have no qualms claiming their "approach to non-proliferation is global". Yet, this 'global' approach can't and won't generate any pressures on the US Congress presumably because US law doesn't permit it! Better sign the CTBT is the message; loud, clear and awe-inspiring. Vajpayee is expected to listen to all this and, like Primakov, Russia's ex-premier, sing songs to Madeleine.
........
outlookindia.com |
