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It’s the Neighbourhood, Stupid!

Praful Bidwai writes from New Delhi
***India cannot gain much from close proximity with the US. This is not to advocate confrontation, but to highlight our divergence from US interests. We have much more to gain by investing our energies in our own neigbourhood. Peace for India is inseparable from its security.***
A week before President Clinton's visit, the Indian elite displays total schizophrenia. On the one hand, it grandiosely announces its "superpower" arrival. Finance minister Sinha said in his budget speech: "The millennium has heralded (this)... We have spnf notice... ,thq India will be a^feconomic'superpower iiitKe21 century,..."
On the other hand, the same elite has an extremely narrow Pakistan-centred agenda, coupled with subservience to Western hegemony. New Delhi made a massive but futile effort to dissuade Mr Clinton from visiting Pakistan. It is now begging him not to be “blackmailed* by Islamabad: instead. America must treat India as an exclusive friend Ln South Asia.
Look at the asymmetry of Indo-US relations. Our states are falling over one another to solicit Mr Clinton's visit. Universities are vying to confer honorary doctorates. The FBI is about to open an office—something India resisted for 50 years!
But in Washington, the Clinton visit is one of many radar blips. It merits the odd “colour" story. Mr Clinton may want to fill his life's Indian “void". But politically, he is yesterday's man.
The Indian elite s warped understanding of the Clinton visit will put New Delhi into an even more skewed relationship within the unequal India-Pak-istan-US triangle. Our real priorities lie elsewhere.
Eyen is our plea that .. Washington should show an unflinching "commitment* to democracy and refuse to legitimise Pakistan's military rulers. Never before has New Delhi practised such complete self-equation with Pakistan.
In reality, this rhetoric has little to do with Washington's or New Delhi's love for democracy. The US has supported brutal dictators from Duvalier to Pinochet. It has damaged democracy more than any other state: from Afghanistan and Brazil to Yugoslavia and Zaire.
Apart from tourist interests, Mr Clinton's visit is guided by the L (legacy)-factor. He wants to be seen as someone who highlighted South Asia's importance as “the world s most dangerous place". That the visit creates such a flutter despite its unflattering rationale only exposes our low self-esteem.
New Delhi's own democratic "principle" sits ill with its record of courting the Shahs. Zias and Suhartos, or the King of Bhutan and the Burmese Junta. Its allergy to the "undemocratic" Gen Musharraf has more to do with isolating Pakistan by offering a special "strategic partnership" with the US. This It does only to counter
.pressure on Kashmir., . .
This shows how fqr (ndia has mo^ed away from non-alignment. This is npt the India that speaks for the Global South, but one that collaborates with global capital by exploiting its own poverty.
It is mistaken to believe India has no other option in today's "unipolar" world. Although it is more skewed, the world has not become unipolar. The US's ability to reshape it has shrunk over the so-called American century. Non-state actors have emerged. But India has failed to ally with them. Nor has it used available spaces.
One e.xample is TRIPs (trade-related intellectual property rights agreement). Instead of Invoking public purpose and safety to blunt its restrictive provisions. India amended its own patent laws.
On global environmental negotiations. India has failed to uphold equity. As Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain and Anju Sharma argue in their latest Green Politics. India has “not proposed a single Idea" to protect the environment.
The Indo-US bilateral trade record is abysmal. India has until 2003 to lift restrictions on trade in 1.429 items. But in anticipation of Mr Clinton's visit.
it agreed to do so within a year. This threatens rh|liions of subsistence peasants.
In the past. India exercised world Influence disproportionate to its military strength because of its moral stature. Now. it aspires to raw power. That has distorted its image. India s regional agenda is to parade its military pre-eminence and displace Pakistan as America's ally.
India's hostility to the Musharraf regime is extreme. Indian officials in Islamabad are Instructed not to meet Pakistani ministers or senior officials. Their ambit is confined to the chief secretaries of the provinces! This is a formula for self-marginalisation.
Equally negative is a document of the Cabinet Security Committee, reported in The Pioneer (Feb 3). This recommends banning Pakistani overflights,
cancellation of.MfN (most favoured nation) trade status, downsizing the Indian mission in Islamabad, and discontinuing the Delhi-Lahore bus and the Samjhauta Express. If the plan is Implemented, it will produce a complete breakdown of relations.
Gen Musharraf is not the worst that could happen to Pakistan. That will materialise if pro-Islamic elements in the military prevail. To imagine that Pakistan's civilian governments are Intrinsically favourable to India is to ignore history. Both the 1948 and 1965 wars were started under civilian goading.
It is not only in Islamabad that India has behaved pettily. The same is true of Kathmandu. 4ndo-Nepal relations have plummeted to a new low—because of the vicious media campaign over Nepal's “negligent"
aviation security All Indian Airlines flights to Kathmandu stand suspended, affecting that poor country's tourism income.
This policy would have been dangerously myopic even if our own aviation security were excellent. But it is deeply flawed. . Thip Is |he surest wajj of courting Nepali h^stl/ity. f3(IS
To return to Mr Cljqton. it is not his Initiation of India ^nto the Nuclear Club that will promote our security. He is coming to South Asia without a clear understanding on anything solid. Most of his discussions will be exploratory’ and insubstantial.
India cannot gain much from close proximity with the US. This is not to advocate confrontation, but to highlight our divergence from US interests. We have much more to gain by investing our energies in our own neigbourhood. Peace for India is inseparable from its security-
Putting our eggs in the US basket risks inviting interference. The Kargil mediation was bad enough. Strategic “partnership" with the US will be worse.