E-Paper
Howdy, pardner
India should welcome George W. Bush. The world's largest economic, military and cultural power, the United States, has the ability to do a great deal of harm, as well as a great deal of good to us.
India should welcome George W. Bush. The world's largest economic, military and cultural power, the United States, has the ability to do a great deal of harm, as well as a great deal of good to us. In the past 60 years, it has done both. America's ties with Pakistan undermined Indian security as nothing else could have. The US-sponsored jehad against the Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan left a detritus of arms and explosives, not to mention jehadis, in our region. But US aid has also left a legacy of the Green Revolution that helped us become self-sufficient in agriculture; American assistance helped fight hunger in the Fifties and Sixties, and its largesse transformed our engineering and management colleges.
The US retains its dual character vis a vis India. It is naturally in our interest to maximise the good and minimise the harm. Despite the asymmetry that exists between the two countries, this latest encounter is more equal than ever before. Despite what the Left would have us believe, the India of 2006 is not the country that abjectly sought American military aid in the wake of the defeat against China in 1962, or survived on daily shipments of wheat in 1966. We now possess nuclear weapons, have a flourishing economy and possess a self-confident people who have beaten back every attempt — some led by the US — to contain us. There is need to clearly understand the weights on the balance. We need a technical deal to liberate our nuclear power programme from US-led embargoes, while the Americans want to boost their sagging influence in Asia by coming closer to us. To achieve double-digit growth we need to sharply boost nuclear energy capacity now, and not in some distant future.
At the same time, in the increasingly turbulent world, the US seeks to set anchor in a vibrant and stable India. While they want a partner who can help assure their own continued prosperity, India can do with investment from — and markets in — the world's biggest economy. What is it that drives India and the US closer? Perhaps democracy, although a deeper look would also reveal other answers: a shared ethos, an open society, an ability to assimilate diversity, and a keen understanding of what constitutes enlightened self-interest.
