INN Digest [I] - Mar 22
Uma Ramamurthy
Today's News Topics:
U.S. Ambassador to India
India's "jail goddess" cleans up a prison
Talbott going to New Delhi to stress U.S. ties to India
Talbott to visit India, Pakistan
India calls for early start of talks with Pakistan
BBC pulls out of Star TV broadcast deal in China-region
Pakistan says India helping drug traffickers
India offers protection to foreign investors
India receives Red Cross team in Kashmir
Pakistan, India trade charges over Bombay Mission
U.S. Official in clear-the-air visit to India
Fiji aims to resume diplomatic ties with India
Subcontinental drift; What's gone wrong with India-U.S. relations
India may review GATT pact over opposition threats
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Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 17:27:23 -0500 (EST)
From: kv...@dad.bgsu.edu (Prof K. V. Rao)
Subject: U.S. Ambassador to India
#1 U.S. AMBASSADOR TO INDIA
Date=3/18/94
Byline=Michael Drudge
Dateline=New Delhi
Intro: Relations between the United States and India have hit
another snag with the decision of former Congressman Stephen
Solarz to withdraw his name from consideration as the new U-S
Ambassador to India. V-O-A correspondent Michael Drudge in New
Delhi reports India had been looking forward to the Solarz
appointment and had been anxious for President Clinton to
nominate him.
Text: India is not reacting officially to the Solarz decision,
because his name had never been formally presented to Indian
Officials for the customary diplomatic approval prior to
nomination.
But Indian Officials have been anxious for a long time for
President Clinton to send an Ambassador to New Delhi to help iron
out strains in the Indo-American relationship.
The post has been vacant for almost a year, after President
Clinton named the previous Ambassador, Thomas Pickering, to head
the U-S Embassy in Russia.
From India's perspective, Mister Solarz was going to be an ideal
replacement. Indian newspapers had labeled Mister Solarz a
"Friend of India." And Indian Officials had hoped Mister
Solarz's credentials as an Asian Policy Expert would pay off in
better understanding between the two countries.
Against that background, India had watched with consternation the
months of on-again, off-again news about the Solarz appointment.
Mister Solarz was investigated for six months and eventually
cleared by the U-S Federal Bureau of Investigation of suspicions
he had helped obtain a U-S visa for a Hong Kong businessman with
alleged ties to organized crime.
On February 20th, Secretary of State Warren Christopher had said
Mister Solarz would be nominated.
But on Thursday, the White House announced that Mister Solarz had
met Vice President Al Gore to withdraw his name from
consideration. The White House did not reveal the reasons.
However, Mister Solarz told the India Abroad News Service that
his nomination had fallen victim to Washington politics in the
climate of the Whitewater affair.
Mister Solarz said President Clinton's two top national security
advisers, Anthony Lake and Sandy Berger, had told him he faced a
difficult confirmation process in the U-S Senate despite the
F-B-I clearance.
Mister Solarz said he interpreted that to mean the White House
wanted to avoid any new controversy and he withdrew his name
because, as he put it, "I didn't want to add to the President's
burden."
The Washington Post newspaper cities unidentified sources who say
Undersecretary of Defense Frank Wisner is now in the running for
the ambassadorship. The topic is certain to come up next week
during a visit to New Delhi by U-S Assistant Secretary of State
Robin Rafael. Meantime, Indian officials are resigning
themselves to keep waiting. (Signed).
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 15:20:22 -0500
From: cha...@thumper.bellcore.com (Ritu Chadha)
Subject: India's `Jail Goddess' Cleans Up a Prison
#2 INDIA'S "JAIL GODDESS" CLEANS UP A PRISON
NEW DELHI, India (AP) _ A year ago, Tihar Central Jail was
India's toughest prison, a cesspool of drugs and gang wars, of
corruption and extortion by both guards and powerful inmates.
Then the ``jail goddess'' came along. These days, thousands of
inmates gather in clean, tree-shaded courtyards every morning for
prayer and meditation. After that, they go to school.
She is Kiran Bedi, a former national tennis champion who has
spent 22 years as a police officer and came to national attention
in 1982 as chief of New Delhi's harried traffic police. Mrs. Bedi
had illegally parked cars hauled away without mercy or favor,
including the prime minister's limousine.
Later, she served with the anti-narcotics wing, starting a
detoxification center, and in the insurrection-ridden northeast of
India.
By last July, when she became warden of Tihar Central, the only
prison in New Delhi, newspapers were calling Mrs. Bedi the ``lady
supercop.'' Soon, she was the ``jail goddess'' to many of her
charges.
``I really feel like a mother'' to them, she said with a laugh
that softened her raspy voice. ``Sometimes I scold them, sometimes
I pat them, sometimes I push them.''
Asish Nandy, a social psychologist, praised the warden's work in
reforming Tihar and said the whole grim Indian prison system needs
cleaning up, ``but I doubt we can find so many Kiran Bedis.''
Most inmates volunteer for Mrs. Bedi's programs. ``Probably I
cannot solve all problems of the inmates, but at least we can do
something to make their lives better,'' she said.
With its dozens of sparkling-clean barracks, the neat
courtyards, shining kitchens and now-disciplined inmates, Tihar
resembles an orderly commune.
``I have lived in jails that were like pig stys, but this is
first class,'' said Jagmohan Tandon, sitting on his bed in a
dormitory reminiscent of a student hostel. Photos of Hindu gods,
movie stars and art works covered the walls.
Tandon, 45, a confessed habitual thief and con artist, said he
had served time in about a dozen Indian jails.
``Tihar is unrecognizable from a year ago,'' said S.N. Talwar, a
political science teacher who helped start an in-house magazine
edited by an inmate. ``I see no difference now in the atmosphere
between my college and the jail.''
About overcrowding, a chronic condition in all Indian jails,
Mrs. Bedi can do little.
When it was built in 1956, Tihar was intended for 2,500 inmates.
Today, 8,000 are crammed into it, including 300 women.
Only about 1,000 are convicts. The rest await trial, and some
have spent years in the jail as their cases move sluggishly through
the overburdened courts.
At the old Tihar, inmates say, the strong extorted money and
possessions from the weak with threats of violent death. Knife
fights were common, gambling was rampant and drugs were smuggled in
with the connivance of guards.
Prisoners awaiting trial, who are not required to work, had
nothing to do but cause trouble.
On her first day at the jail, Mrs. Bedi said, she felt as if
``the Himalayas had fallen on my head. My legs were buckling under
me.''
Then, she recalled, ``I thought, `Am I going to be a part of
this rotten system or am I going to change it?''
As a first step toward reform, she rounded up 400 men from one
of the barracks, sang them a prayer and told them to repeat it
after her. The prayer has become the jail's anthem and inmates
chant it daily.
Next came classes in meditation and yoga, isolation of gang
leaders, suspension of corrupt prison officers. Inmates as well as
officials say drug use has declined dramatically.
Voluntary groups were allowed into Tihar for the first time in
35 years to provide counseling, meditation classes, vocational
training, legal aid, even entertainment.
Educated prisoners volunteer to teach classes. Music programs,
spiritual and religious lectures and sports contests are regular
events.
``We have stopped being lazy,'' Mrs. Bedi said.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 15:23:16 -0500
From: cha...@thumper.bellcore.com (Ritu Chadha)
Subject: Talbott Going To New Delhi To Stress U.S. Ties To India
#3 TALBOTT GOING TO NEW DELHI TO STRESS U.S. TIES TO INDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott will
go to New Delhi next month to affirm U.S. interest in maintaining
strong relations with India, the State Department said Monday.
Talbott also will visit Pakistan, Poland, the Slovak Republic
and Belgium in a nine-day trip.
After more than a year, the Clinton administration has not named
an ambassador to New Delhi. Last week, former Rep. Stephen J.
Solarz, D-N.Y., withdrew from consideration after the White House
had told him he would not be nominated.
Solarz's nomination had been delayed while the Justice
Department investigated whether he had taken a bribe to help obtain
a visa for a Hong Kong businessman. No charges were made, but
Solarz was told he could not get the post.
The likely nominee is Frank G. Wisner, undersecretary of defense
for policy and a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and to the
Philippines.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher has stressed at the White
House that naming an ambassador ``needs to be addressed with a
certain amount of urgency,'' the State Department spokesman,
Michael McCurry, said.
Talbott will go to India on his first trip as deputy secretary
of state ``to underscore the importance we attach to that
relationship,'' McCurry said.
``It's a very critical relationship,'' he said.
Talbott will tell officials in India and Pakistan that the
Clinton administration is worried there could be a nuclear conflict
between them over Kashmir, a disputed territory held by India.
In Warsaw, he will talk to Polish leaders about NATO's
invitation to Eastern and Central European nations to participate
in alliance exercises as a step toward eventual membership.
In Bratislava, Talbott will get a first-hand look at the Slovak
Republic's political upheaval. A new government of five former
opposition parties was formed last week.
And in Brussels, he will meet with officials of NATO and the
European Union.
Talbott leaves on April 4 and returns April 13.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 21:27:56 -0500 (EST)
From: "Sukhjinder S Bajwa" <ba...@asd.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Talbott to visit India, Pakistan
#4 TALBOTT TO VISIT INDIA, PAKISTAN
WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuter) - Deputy Secretary of State Strobe
Talbott will visit India and Pakistan next month in an effort to smooth
relations with the sub-continent, which feels it has been ignored by
Washington.
State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Talbott would also also
visit Poland, Slovakia and NATO headquarters in Brussels during the trip
from April 5-13.
"In New Delhi and Islamabad, Secretary (of State Warren) Christopher
has asked Deputy Secretary Talbott to focus on all aspects of those
bilateral relations with a special emphasis, of course, on
non-proliferation issues," said McCurry.
U.S. relations with India have been strained over President Clinton's
failure to name an ambassador to New Dehli and differences over Kashmir.
The ambassador's post has been vacant for about a year. The White
House wanted to nominate former Congressman Stephen Solarz but he withdrew
last week. Solarz had been cited for writing bad checks in the House
Banking Scandal.
Undersecretary of Defence Frank Wisner, a career foreign service
officer, is now in line for the job.
McCurry said Washington's relationship with India was "very critical
and one we attach a great deal of importance to." He said the trip was
designed to underline that.
But U.S. policy on Kashmir would remain unchanged, he said. "We
continue to believe that the problem of Kashmir must be settled by India
and Pakistan together ... taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri
people."
U.S. ties with Pakistan are also shaky due to the U.S. decision to end
aid to Islamabad because of its nuclear arms programme. The administration
wants to complete a sale of jet planes to Pakistan, which could be on
Talbott's agenda.
Some consideration was given to having Christopher make the trip. A
U.S. secretary of state has not been to India in about 10 years and the
last U.S. presidential visit to that country was 15 years ago.
But officials said it was decided that improving U.S. ties with India
and Pakistan and working on relieving tensions between the two regional
powers would take considerable time and was appropriately assigned to
Talbott.
In Poland and Slovakia, Talbott will discuss the NATO Partnership for
Peace and other bilateral issues, McCurry said. The visit to Slovakia,
coinciding with the emergence of a new government, is seen as an
opportunity to warm relations with a newly-independent nation that may now
be prepared to undertake economic and diplomatic policies more to
Washington's liking.
#5 INDIA CALLS FOR EARLY START OF TALKS WITH PAKISTAN
NEW DELHI, March 21 (Reuter) - India told Pakistan on Monday that it
wanted an early resumption of talks between the two countries at foreign
secretary level, United News of India (UNI) said.
UNI quoted India's Foreign Secretary Krishnan Srinivasan as telling
Pakistan's High Commissioner Riaz Khokar that he was ready to go to
Islamabad to discuss bilateral issues with his Pakistani counterpart.
Srinivasan said the talks could be held in Islamabad or New Delhi.
Ties between Moslem Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India have long been
strained over Kashmir and other issues. India rules two-thirds and Pakistan
the rest of the Himalayan region, over which the two countries have fought
two of their three wars since becoming independent from Britain in 1947.
The last round of talks between senior officials of the two countries
collapsed in Islamabad in early January.
Islamabad had said it will not schedule more talks until New Delhi
improves the political climate in the part of Kashmir under its control.
Ties were strained further when Pakistan proposed a resolution to the
U.N. Human Rights Commission last month, accusing India of human rights
violations in trying to crush a separatist revolt in Kashmir.
Pakistan did not press for a vote after most commission members
decided to abstain.
#6 BBC PULLS OUT OF STAR TV BROADCAST DEAL IN CHINA-REGION
LONDON, March 21 (Reuter) - The BBC's World Service Television said on
Monday it was pulling out of a deal with Rupert Murdoch's Star TV to
broadcast to the China region, but had extended a contract to transmit to
the Indian sub-continent.
The British Broadcasting Corporation said WST, its 24-hour news and
information channel, would stop broadcasts to northeast China, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Korea and Mongolia on April 17.
But the broadcast deal covering India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, has
been extended until at least March 31 1996, the BBC said in a statement.
The BBC and Star, which media tycoon Murdoch took control of last
year, had been embroiled in a legal dispute because of the BBC's plans to
launch an Arabic-language service.
The BBC went to court in Britain last year to stop Star pulling the
plug while the two resolved the dispute. Star had argued the Arabic service
would clash with the Asian service.
"Today's settlement...brings an end to all litigation between the BBC
and Star TV relating to the transmission of foreign language news services
and enables us to pursue the speedy implementation of the proposed Arabic
news and information channel," WST chairman Bob Phillis said.
Phillis said the BBC regretted the withdrawal of the services but said
the agreement with Star placed no restriction on the BBC's future access to
"these major and important potential audiences."
He said the BBC was seeking to establish an alternative means of
delivery to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Mongolia at the earliest
opportunity.
The contract between WST and Star TV in 1991 provided for distribution
across Asia and into the Middle East. Either side could terminate the deal
from December 1994.
Phillis said the extension of the broadcast deal in the Indian
sub-continent meant WST would continue to serve more than seven million
households.
WST says it now covers 80 percent of the globe and broadcasts to 141
countries.
Murdoch's Star TV broadcasts WST along with four other channels to
Asia on the Asiasat 1 satellite.
#7 PAKISTAN SAYS INDIA HELPING DRUG TRAFFICKERS
ISLAMABAD, March 21 (Reuter) - Indian authorities are helping Pakistani
drug traffickers by supplying them a key chemical used in making heroin,
Pakistan's Interior Minister Nasirullah Khan Babar said on Monday.
He told a news conference that Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency
(FIA) police had last week seized 92 kg (203 lbs) of highly concentrated
acetic anhydride smuggled from India by a Pakistani national who was
arrested.
Accused Mohammad Imran had told interrogators that the chemical, a
major ingredient for the production of heroin from opium, was provided to
him by some Indian officials at Atari railway station in India's Punjab
state bordering Pakistan, Babar said.
The minister said the seizure was "a clear indicator" of direct
involvement of Indian customs, intelligence and immigration agencies in the
smuggling of the chemical to Pakistan.
"Possibly this is done to give us a bad name," he said.
In recent years Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal region
and neighbouring Afghanistan have become the world's biggest source of
heroin and cannabis after the Golden Triangle of southeast Asia.
#8 INDIA OFFERS PROTECTION TO FOREIGN INVESTORS
By NEELAM JAIN
NEW DELHI, March 21 (UPI) -- The Indian Government in its bid to more
investments has sent a draft agreement to the United States guaranteeing
protection to foreign investors, The Observer of Business and Politics
reported Monday.
India recently signed a 10-year agreement with Britain to promote and
protect investments in the two countries. The draft sent to the U.S. by the
Ministry of External Affairs is on the lines of the Indo-British agreement,
and will be followed by similar pacts with Germany, Singapore and Japan.
The U.S. is India's largest trading partner, supporting its economic-
reform program. Last year, new U.S. investment represented over 42 percent
of the more than $2 billion approved by the government of India.
These agreements are a countervailing guarantee by India which the
investing countries want as a protection, the newspaper said.
Under the agreement the Indian Government, if it decides to force down
the shareholdings in Indian companies of nationals and entities belonging
to the signatory country, will have to bear the liability of easily
repatriable compensation.
In the late 70's the Janata Party, which was in power, asked Coca Cola
and IBM to leave the country. Coke had to quit after the company's refusal
to part with the formula of its concentrate, whereas IBM did not oblige the
Indian Government by bringing down its foreign liquidity as per the rules
under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.
Both Coca Cola and IBM had to sell off their assets and leave the
country. There was no compensatory payment to foreign-owned companies that
were asked to bring down their non-Indian equity to the prescribed limits.
Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's government has been introducing
radical market-oriented reforms since it came to power in mid-1991. The
government has dismantled import and foreign-investment barriers, reduced
tariffs and removed licensing controls.
Indian officials in their talks with a high-powered Japanese team
recently indicated that New Delhi would soon come out with a proposal to
allow automatic approval for foreign equity up to 75 percent from the
present 51 per cent.
Indian law until 1992 prevented foreign firms from owning a majority
stockholding in their Indian subsidiaries.
#9 INDIA RECEIVES RED CROSS TEAM IN KASHMIR
SRINAGAR, India, March 21 (Reuter) - A four-member team from the
International Committee of Red Cross arrived in the northern Indian state
of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday to probe alleged human rights violations by
Indian troops, officials said.
The team will stay for four days before making proposals to the Indian
government.
"We are an impartial, neutral body. We will meet people, visit places
and also talk to the officials to assess the situation and then make
proposals," David Delapraz, regional delegate to the Red Cross, told
Reuters.
India has been battling a four-year-old campaign by Moslem rebels in
the Himalayan region either seeking independence or union with Pakistan.
Police and hospital sources say more than 16,000 people have been killed in
the violence.
India's 50,000 soldiers deployed in Kashmir have frequently been
accused of human rights violations, but Delhi has until recently resisted
international pressure to allow human rights organisations to investigate.
Last month it allowed a group of ambassadors and Amnesty International
to visit the former princely state.
#10 PAKISTAN, INDIA TRADE CHARGES OVER BOMBAY MISSION
By Moses Manoharan
BOMBAY, March 21 (Reuter) - Pakistan and India, locked in bitter
confrontation over Kashmir, blamed each other on Monday over the closing of
the Pakistani consulate in the Indian commercial capital of Bombay.
Ties between Moslem Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India have long been
strained over Kashmir, which has caused two of their three wars since
independence from Britain in 1947.
"We consider it unfortunate," Indian Minister of State for External
Affairs Salman Khurshid told Reuters when asked about the closure by
Pakistan.
"It is not an off-the-cuff move," he said. "It is designed to create
an atmosphere that is not conducive to talks."
The two countries, both believed to have nuclear weapons capability,
are being urged by the international community to have talks to resolve
Kashmir and reduce regional tensions.
"It is a step backwards," Pakistani Consul-General Shahryar Rashed
told a news conference in Bombay.
Rashed said the decision to close the consulate was taken after a
leading hotel refused to hold Pakistan Day celebrations on March 23 on its
premises.
"It was the last straw. But there is a much earlier history of
non-cooperation of the Indian government," he said.
Rashed said he had searched without success or help from the Indian
government for 19 months without finding a suitable place for a permanent
consulate, which has been operating from a rented office since August,
1992.
"This attitude goes against the Vienna convention, which laid down
that the host government is to accord a minimum assistance in establishing
such an office," Rashed said. The consulate was closed on Sunday.
Asked if Islamabad would close down the Indian consulate in Karachi,
he said: "We have not taken the next logical step yet."
A senior official of Maharashtra state, of which Bombay is the
capital, said the government had tried to help the Pakistanis find a
permanent office.
"We showed them five different places, but those who owned them were
not willing to rent or sell them to Pakistanis," he said. "We can't force
anyone to give them space."
The hotel's refusal to allow Pakistan Day celebrations is attributed
by official sources to a campaign against Islamabad by Bombay's
Hindu-militant Shiv Sena party following two bouts of violence in the city
in 1992 and 1993.
In December 1992, Hindu-Moslem riots broke out in India, sparked by
the demolition of a mosque in northern Ayodhya town. Islamabad denounced
the violence in which more than 2,000, most of them Moslems, died. In March
1993, New Delhi linked Islamabad to a series of bomb attacks in Bombay in
which 260 people were killed.
The ties came under further strain when Pakistan proposed a resolution
to the U.N. Human Rights Commission last month, accusing India of
human-rights violations in trying to crush a separatist revolt in the
two-thirds of Kashmir under its rule.
Pakistan, which controls the rest, did not press for a vote after most
commission members decided to abstain.
#11 U.S. OFFICIAL IN CLEAR-THE-AIR VISIT TO INDIA
By Michael Battye
NEW DELHI, March 21 (Reuter) - Senior U.S. official Robin Raphel
begins a damage-control visit to India on Tuesday, hoping to patch up
relations seen by a furious Indian press as strained by her comments on
disputed Kashmir.
Raphel caused an uproar after taking up the new post of Assistant
Secretary of State for South Asia, saying Washington did not believe
Kashmir's accession to India in 1947, when India and Pakistan won
independence from Britain, was permanent.
The dispute over Kashmir remains a deeply emotional issue and a
four-year rebellion in largely Hindu India's only Moslem-majority region
has plunged relations between India and Pakistan to new lows.
Raphel will be followed early next month by Deputy Secretary of State
Strobe Talbott in a visit seen in Washington as a tacit admission that the
United States has not paid enough attention to rapidly worsening
Indo-Pakistan relations.
Raphel's visit could be the more important, western diplomats said.
"She is the one who is blamed for the sudden deterioration in
relations and it's become very personalised in the Indian media," said one
senior envoy who asked not to be named.
"It's up to her to clear the air and pave the way for a constructive
visit by Talbott."
India blames Pakistan for a revolt in which hospitals and police have
reported more than 16,000 deaths and which brought widespread accusations
against Indian security forces of torture and murder. Pakistan says it
gives only moral support.
Publicly, India said little when Raphel appeared to cast doubt on
Kashmir being a permanent part of India, but privately officials were
deeply angry. Newspapers were furious.
A succession of other statements from Washington kept the anger
boiling.
But in recent weeks, Washington appears to have made a conscious
effort to repair the damage, senior officials said.
"We think the Americans realised that was a mistake, because Kashmir
acceded to India under laws laid down by the British before independence
and questioning one accession means questioning them all," an official
said.
"It could also be read to mean questioning the legitimacy of Pakistan,
and we don't think they could have possibly meant that," he said.
The United States has been the biggest foreign investor since India
eased investment restrictions in June, 1991.
One subject likely to be raised was a report that Washington was
considering allowing Pakistan to take possession of dozens of F-16 fighter
planes it has paid for.
Delivery has been stopped by the so-called Pressler Amendment which
blocks military aid to Pakistan unless the president can certify it has no
nuclear weapons.
#12 FIJI AIMS TO RESUME DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH INDIA
SUVA, Fiji, March 21 (Reuter) - Fiji's newly re-elected government will
seek to restore full diplomatic relations with India, President Ratu Sir
Kamisese Mara said on Monday.
Speaking at the opening of parliament, Mara said the government of
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka would invite India to re-open its embassy in
Fiji "as soon as practicable."
Diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed in May 1990
after Fiji ordered closure of the Indian embassy in the capital, Suva, and
expulsion of all diplomats. India had already withdrawn its ambassador in
November 1989.
India has maintained a trade ban against Fiji since Rabuka led two
racially-inspired coups in 1987 to bring down a government dominated by
Fiji Indians.
Mara said the Rabuka government was also committed to re-entering the
Commonwealth. It's membership lapsed in 1987 and India has staunchly
opposed its re-entry.
"(It) sincerely hopes that this can be achieved in the not too distant
future," Mara said.
The opening of parliament followed the re-election of Rabuka's
Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei, or Fijian Political Party, in national
elections last month.
#13 SUBCONTINENTAL DRIFT; WHAT'S GONE WRONG WITH INDIA-U.S. RELATIONS
By John Ward Anderson
NEW DELHI - A year ago, I made a terrific friend in Bangalore, the
high-tech center in south India. He gave me a tour of the city, reveling in
its westernized lifestyle, brimming with enthusiasm for India's future and
effusive about his country's economic liberalization and renewed friendship
with America.
Last month, I invited him to dinner in Delhi. He had not been in our
house more than 10 minutes when he began lambasting the United States,
calling President Clinton a "terrorist" and warning of a tide of
anti-American feeling sweeping India.
"I am so angry, because it didn't have to be like this," he said,
listing the areas of tension between the two countries. "Everybody is
anti-American," he said, adding with obvious anguish: "I am anti-American."
The change in my friend crystallized for me the changes I've seen in
Indo-U.S. relations since coming here almost two years ago. When I arrived,
it was a blossoming love affair, full of hope and optimism and talk of
booming trade and business ties. But today, while American companies are
still bullish on India, government-to-government relations are in a virtual
free fall, marked by American missteps, Indian overreaction and a level of
misunderstanding that seems almost willful. Veteran diplomats say relations
between the world's two largest democracies are the worst in more than 20
years.
The catalyst for all the angst is Kashmir, the beautiful mountain
region that both India and Pakistan claim as their own and which U.S.
analysts believe is one of world's prime flashpoints for nuclear war. For
years Pakistan has supported a separatist insurgency in India's Kashmir
Valley, which has triggered a strong response by Indian security forces,
who are accused of brutalizing innocent civilians in their zeal to stamp
out the revolt. The conflict has grown into a full-blown civil war that
claims about 15 lives a day.
In recent months, U.S. officials, including the president, have made a
series of statements - some deliberate, others inadvertent, poorly timed
and insensitive - that have caused Indians to conclude that the United
States has shifted its policy on Kashmir against their country. American
officials insist that this is not the case, but the ambiguity of U.S.
policy and confusion about U.S. intentions has further destabilized an
already tense region and hardened the positions of the combatants - the
exact opposite of what the United States hoped to achieve.
U.S. officials here say Indian reaction to relatively minor policy
changes has been blown out of proportion, but they also chalk up many of
the problems to inexperience in the White House and bungling by Clinton's
foreign policy team.
"I've stopped offering excuses" when questioned about the apparent
confusion in U.S. positions, one top diplomat said. "It's getting too
embarrassing."
Indians, whose society is based on a caste hierarchy, see the year-long
absence of a U.S. ambassador in Delhi as a sign of their low status with
Washington. On the American side is the belief that an ambassador could
have smoothed the edges as the United States moved from quiet diplomacy to
more public criticism of India's human rights record.
In truth, rather than a new low in Indo-U.S. relations - which were
always strained by India's close ties to the Soviet Union and the United
States' strategic alliance with Pakistan - current events seem to be an
extension of a historic problem: U.S. adventurism and muscle-flexing do not
mix well with Indian pride and hypersensitivity. Stripped of jingoism and
recriminations back and forth, the conclusion many analysts draw is that
both countries, aided by India's ultranationalist press corps, have made a
mess of things.
It's tempting to shrug off the whole affair as irrelevant in an era
when South Asia has lost its strategic Cold War importance. But both
countries have a lot to lose if relations continue to degenerate. American
business leaders here are increasingly concerned that anti-Americanism in
the political arena could sour Indians on U.S. products and investment. And
India needs U.S. business, money and technology to sustain its faltering,
three-year-old economic liberalization drive. Hundreds of American firms
have come to India in the last three years, investing more than $1 billion
in 1993 and boosting annual trade between the two countries to $7 billion.
The United States is also gradually slipping from its natural position
as a mediator between Pakistan and India, while some Indian analysts are
pushing for an Iran-India-China axis to counter U.S. initiatives. In a sign
of its deepening ties with Iran and China, India last week used those
countries to persuade Pakistan to withdraw a resolution criticizing India
at a United Nations human rights forum in Geneva.
How have things deteriorated so thoroughly, so rapidly?
From the beginning, India has suffered from inflated and unrealistic
expectations about the kind of ties it could have with the United States.
And it has repeatedly stuck its head in the sand on key issues, refusing to
listen to messages it did not want to hear.
Indians were warned that the euphoria over Indo-U.S. rapprochement
after the disintegration of the Soviet Union could not last. They ignored
it. After Clinton's election, some of India's most seasoned politicians and
astute thinkers declared that better relations with the United States were
inevitable because Clinton was a Democrat, and Democrats (they specifically
cited JFK) liked India more than Republicans.
They were also told that Washington didn't work that way, that things
had changed, and that Clinton's agenda in South Asia would be dominated by
human rights and nuclear nonproliferation concerns, both of which would
cause great friction with India. They refused to believe it. When State
Department officials made on-the-record statements signaling subtle shifts
in U.S. policy on Kashmir, they were dismissed by Indians as low-level
flunkies who did not speak for the United States. They were wrong.
Now, India is on the verge of committing the same blunder again.
Officials here were convinced that former New York congressman Stephen
Solarz, considered one of India's strongest allies when he served on
Capitol Hill, would singlehandedly repair the damaged relations had he
become ambassador. They had been told that Solarz, if appointed, would calm
hurt feelings but would not ignore human rights and proliferation issues,
which continue to be a source of conflict.
But Solarz late last week suddenly withdrew from consideration for the
post. And in the end, America's desire to contain the spread of
high-technology - and particularly nuclear - weapons runs counter to the
security concerns of India, which feels threatened by nuclear neighbors
Pakistan and China, with whom it has fought a total of four wars.
The issue is becoming increasingly personalized. Clinton is typically
described in the press at best as naive and inept, and at worst as one of
India's chief nemeses, surpassed only by the prime minister of Pakistan,
Benazir Bhutto. A recent edition of Sunday Magazine, a popular newsweekly,
had a picture of Clinton on the cover - with superimposed horns and fangs -
over the headline: "Yankee Devil"?
Particular scorn has been reserved for the assistant secretary of state
for South Asia, Robin Raphel, who until a year ago was a senior political
officer in the U.S. Embassy here. Raphel, who is expected to visit Delhi on
Tuesday, has become a lightning rod for complaint for her outspokenness on
Kashmir.
For instance, in the middle of a tense stand-off between the Indian
army and terrorists barricaded in a mosque in Kashmir last October, Raphel
said at a Washington press briefing that the United States did not believe
Kashmir "is forever more an integral part of India," adding that Kashmiris
should be consulted about the future of their region. The State Department
churned out clarifications, and officials here conceded that the timing of
Raphel's statement was unfortunate.
Indians have focused on Raphel's remarks, and comments by Clinton
expressing concern over human rights abuses in Kashmir, as a sign that
America is ignoring Pakistan's role in fueling the insurgency and secretly
favors an independent Kashmir. Nonetheless, the increased public pressure
by the United States and others is paying some dividends as India has begun
opening Kashmir to more international observers.
U.S. officials have complained that the Indian embassy in Washington
and Indian officials in Delhi have orchestrated a flood of negative and
often uninformed commentary about the United States and its policies, which
are eagerly picked up and sensationalized by India's free but strongly
nationalistic press.
A front page story two weeks ago in the Hindustan Times, a popular,
mainstream daily, called Raphel the "goddess of Indian terrorists,
secessionists and other outlaws" and urged the government to roll out a
"black carpet" for her when she arrives later this month.
"Considering the animosity she arouses in every patriotic heart,
politicians are expected to treat her as an untouchable," the story said.
"It is likely that she will use this country's soil to reaffirm the Clinton
administration's commitment to destabilize India."
India's home minister, one of the top politicians in the country,
delivered two scathing attacks on the United States in parliament earlier
this month and both times he was repeatedly interrupted by cheers and
supportive desk-thumping. A Western diplomat said that even rickshaw
drivers in a remote city recently asked a group of American travelers what
was wrong with their country.
In the end, India continues to insist that Kashmir is an internal
problem, and that it will resolve any disputes over the region through
bilateral negotiations with Pakistan and without assistance from a third
party - a formula approved by the two counties in 1972 under the so-called
Simla Agreement. U.S. officials, noting that precious little headway has
been made under the formula in the last 22 years, believe that some new
initiative is needed.
"We've come to the conclusion that, left to their own devices, Kashmir
will not be solved," a Western diplomat said. "All the ambiguity of our
position is coming back to bite us, but we don't care what vehicle is used
- Simla, the U.N. - our only interest in the issue is to get it settled.
But anything you say about Kashmir that does not sound like, `Kashmir is an
integral part of India,' gives India a problem."
John Anderson is a Washington Post correspondent based in New Delhi.
#14 INDIA MAY REVIEW GATT PACT OVER OPPOSITION THREATS
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, March 20 (Reuter) - India may have to reconsider its
commitment to the GATT world trade agreement because of opposition threats
to campaign against it, government ministers said on Sunday.
They told Reuters that the ruling Congress Party was worried about the
opposition threat before crucial state assembly elections this year.
"We are still at a debating stage, taking the opinions of both sides,
before stating the government's final position," a senior member of Prime
Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's cabinet said on condition of anonymity.
Welfare Minister Sitaram Kesri, a close Rao ally, said a final
decision would have to consider popular antipathy to the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade agreement signed in December.
"This issue is not finally settled yet. We have to go to the people to
find out what they want," Kesri said.
The opposition is increasingly focusing its attacks on a government
which has introduced radical economic reforms to a decades-old socialist
system.
It accuses the government of selling the country to multinational
corporations.
Rao faces four state assembly elections this year in Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Goa and Sikkim and by-elections for 15 parliamentary seats.
His troubles were compounded this week when the Hindu nationalist
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers Corps) called for
anti-GATT protests.
The RSS is represented in the parliament by the main opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Centrist and left-leaning opposition parties, though hostile to the
RSS and the BJP, are united against the GATT pact.
The opposition says a proposed patenting of seeds will hit Indian
farmers. Drug prices are estimated to go up by 45 per cent after India
accepts international patent rights, several deputies told parliament.
Thousands of farmers have demonstrated in recent months against GATT.
Opposition parties plan more protests.
Rao, though officially defending the GATT agreement, has said it has
damaging clauses. He said India signed it because other developing nations
did not support attempts to change crucial clauses strongly enough.
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End of India News Network Digest
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