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| April 3, 2000 | ||
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| CLINTON'S VISIT Charming of India Exuding warmth and friendliness the US President wins his way into the hearts of Indians and signals a major shift in policy By Raj Chengappa
This was Clinton at his jugalbandi best. The amateur jazz musician who brought a magical, lyrical fusion to his vision of how two of the world's greatest democracies should enter the new millennium as partners rather than adversaries. In his speech, Clinton described how the uniqueness of Indian classical music was its elasticity where the composer lays down a foundation, a structure of melodic and rhythmic arrangements, which the player then improvises to bring the raga to life. As his five-day trip to India progressed, Clinton charmed his way into the heart of India by being unafraid to strum different tunes and explore new ragas in a relationship that had strangely been out of step for more than five decades. The overall effect had much of the country enthralled and dramatically redrew images the two nations shared of each other.
In Parliament that morning, Clinton came across as a soulful speaker, shorn of the arrogance that characterised most Americans in power, subsuming his role as a global headmaster, willing to laugh and be laughed at, pandering to India's inflated ego and appealing to the country's rectitude. It was diplomacy at its mellifluous best. The 1,000-odd parliamentarians, both present and past, knew that it was a decisive moment in the relationship between the two countries. As Clinton walked to the exit, suddenly, as if the dam of hostility had been breached, almost everyone wanted to shake his hand. Some of the MPs even climbed on benches to reach out to him and a Tamil Nadu MP wrapped a colourful angavastram around his neck. It was as if half a century of rancour and suspicion that had marred relations between the two countries were being washed away by the flood of goodwill that Clinton had created. Congressman Jim McDermott, a seasoned Democrat from Seattle, who was watching the proceedings with a mixture of awe and surprise, said, "I tell ya what, when I saw them climbing one over the other to shake hands with him, I knew then that not just a new leaf, not just a new chapter, but a whole new book was unfolding in our relations with each other." Jim Greenwood, a Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania, who was sitting next to him, was as effusive: "For me it was a historic moment. As significant as President Nixon going to China." Even Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood bemusedly watching the rapturous reception that Clinton received. Madhavrao Scindia, deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, acknowledged, "The US President was candid, positive, constructive and exhibited a great sensitivity to India's needs. It augurs well for us." For someone whose trip many cynical experts had dismissed as the extended waddle of a lameduck president, the outcome came close to being epoch-making. Much of it had to do with the dazzling facets of the personality that Clinton exhibited. It shattered all stereotypes of him. Before he landed, the army of security that descended on Delhi and wherever else he had to visit only increased the notion that Mr Big Guy was in town and you had better not mess with him. But as soon as Clinton landed on March 19 in Delhi and checked into Room 1683, the Chandragupta Suite, at the ITC Maurya Sheraton, he went about dismantling his carefully choreographed trip with its iron rings of security. He dropped by at a reception for Indian Americans hosted by US Ambassador to India Richard Celeste. That was an unscheduled stop. Immediately after that, he strolled through the corridors of the hotel, shook hands with staff members at random, visited shops in the building, and even bargained over the price of a carpet. He then wanted to play the saxophone at the hotel's Jazz Club. But with jet lag catching up and the yawns becoming obvious, he postponed his "millennium performance", as he joked, for another night.
The next morning before setting off on a day's trip to Bangladesh, he continued to keep his Secret Service guards off balance. In the wee hours, wearing a grey Nike T-shirt, he exercised on a stepper in his room. He then had his favourite breakfast -- coffee with bagels, assorted breads and fresh pomegranate juice. While coming down the elevator to get into his motorcade, he suddenly decided to walk through the coffee shop and, much to the delight of the chefs, began asking them questions about what they were cooking and even tasted some of the fare. While the President was away in Dhaka, Chelsea flew down to Jodhpur where the former Maharaja's black Cadillac waited to drop her off at a Holi celebration amidst regal surroundings. When they both returned to the hotel that night, Clinton opted for dinner at the Bukhara restaurant where he took a particular fancy to the burra kababs and couldn't resist having a second helping. He downed the meal with gulps of diet Coke. For dessert he finished an entire portion of kulfi and faluda.
On March 21, the day his official tour of India began, Clinton, sporting a dark blue suit and a mustard tie, drove up to Rashtrapati Bhavan in a blast-proof stretch limousine. He had already been briefed by Sandy Berger, his national security adviser, about the dastardly gunning down of 35 Sikhs in a village near Anantapur early that morning. When Clinton got off to greet President K.R. Narayanan and Vajpayee, he seemed genuinely grieved by the incident and extended his condolences. As the ceremonial guard of honour began, Clinton was alert and curious to his surroundings. Naresh Chandra, India's ambassador to the US, recalls that the President "soaked in" the sights and sounds of India. It was as if Clinton wanted to savour every moment he was in India and feel the intensity of an ancient civilisation that his countrymen had always failed to understand. Soon after the brief welcome ceremony, Clinton and Chelsea, wearing a dark business suit, drove to Gandhi Smriti where the President again exhibited an eye for detail and was extremely polite. A senior member of the Indian delegation observed: "He wanted to be pucca in whatever he did and was careful not to offend anyone's feelings." Apart from just laying the customary wreath, he tried his hand at Gandhi's charkha and enquired about the words "Hey Ram" engraved on the stone. He loved the peace of the place and said as much. Again showing that he didn't really care about convention, Clinton arrived almost half an hour early at Hyderabad House for what was to be his only political session of the trip. Vajpayee had had half a dozen telephone conversations with Clinton but this was their first face-to-face dialogue. Despite the age difference of close to 20 years, the two leaders got along well. Chandra believes that the Indian prime minister's style of speaking his mind "without prevarication and hypocrisy" was something that the US President appreciated. Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister, described the chemistry between the two leaders "as good". A US diplomat said Clinton "respected Vajpayee for his forthrightness". On its part, the Indian delegation, which had come prepared for some finger-wagging by the President on the Kashmir and nuclear issues, was surprised and disarmed by what the members termed as his "friendly tone that had no rancour and recrimination". Part of the reason for the ease with which the two sides sidestepped their differences was the extensive dialogue that External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott had in the past two years over the nuclear question and relations with Pakistan. The Indian delegation noticed two significant departures from the past on Kashmir. They found that for the first time, the US delegation did not refer to Kashmir as a "disputed territory". Also, Clinton did not say that a solution to the problem would have to involve the "wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir'', a sentence that always came as a rider whenever any official referred to the issue. "Don't just look at what he said but also pay attention to what he did not say,'' said a senior US State Department official. Clinton did choose his words carefully condemning "violence" in the Valley but nowhere describing it as an act of cross-border terrorism. So Pakistan needn't feel all that awful. During lunch, soon after, India made sure that of the seven state chief ministers, it was the articulate Farooq Abdullah of Jammu and Kashmir who was seated next to the President, giving him a large dose of how Pakistan was messing up on Kashmir. On the sensitive nuclear issue, Clinton's tone was firm but not offensive. He admitted that India had the "right to determine its own security needs" but wanted India not to enter into a debilitating arms race or conduct further tests. Vajpayee, it is learnt, reassured the US that the "Indian policy was not a threat to the US" and that India was not keen on a war with Pakistan or for that matter on an arms race. At the end of the hour-and-a-half dialogue at Hyderabad House, the Indian side felt that "the US was making a sincere attempt to lay the foundation for a longer relationship with India". After that Vajpayee and Clinton had a 10-minute discussion without their aides. No details were made available. At the end of it the two countries issued a vision statement which, says former foreign secretary Maharaja Krishna Rasgotra, "puts the past behind and looks at the future and newer ways to explore it". Importantly, they called for ways to institutionalise the dialogue between the two countries and Vajpayee accepted Clinton's invitation to come to the US for a summit meeting. In the evening at a banquet held by Narayanan, there were some discordant notes over the tough speech made by him. Some circles in the Indian Government too seemed upset. Narayanan, a seasoned diplomat, appears to have decided that since no one else in the Government was mouthing the shibboleths of non-alignment and the multi-polar world that India subscribed too, it was time to tell the US about it. While the Government fumed, the President's office pointed out that there was no real departure from the norms and previous presidents had made far sterner speeches to visiting US presidents. The next morning, before he addressed Parliament, Clinton met a Congress delegation headed by Sonia Gandhi. There were some embarrassing moments when he sought to know from the team why the party won fewer parliamentary seats, even though it polled more votes than the ruling BJP. It was left to Madhavrao Scindia to explain the first-past-the-post system. After Clinton's well-received address to Parliament, Vajpayee in his reply preferred to stick to Hindi. But he quoted an English verse from a Walt Whitman poem that began, "Sail forth, steer for the deep waters only." As the prime minister went on, Clinton shifted uneasily wondering whether the host had by oversight forgotten that he had presented Monica Lewinsky with a special edition of Leaves of Grass by the same poet. After the official engagements, it was time for Clinton to shed his suits and wear trendy T-shirts and shorts. His first halt was the Taj Mahal where he couldn't stop exclaiming "wow". He also charmed those who were there. "What a dashing personality. I wish he came to Agra more often," sighed little Ashita Verma, a class V student at St Patrick's Junior School, Agra. The doe-eyed beauty queen Priyanka Chopra even got a handshake. How did it feel? "Shaking the hands of power did things to me," gushed the dusky beauty. Appropriately, a loudspeaker was blaring the Hindi film song "Tu mera hero No.1" at the Taj. March 23 was Clinton's day out with Indian women and he seemed to enjoy every minute of it. From being garlanded to having the traditional red thread tied around his wrist -- friendship band, they called it. He left the women of Nayla, a village near Jaipur where he had gone for a taste of grassroots democracy, gasping while their menfolk looked on a trifle angrily. More so when the women held his hands and took turns at twirling with him to the tune of Rajasthani folk songs. "What am I supposed to do?'' Clinton asked his interpreter, Kanchan Mathur, when he saw the women swaying to the sound of music. "Why don't you dance?'' she replied and before anyone knew, Big Bill was out there in the middle tapping his feet. Later expressing astonishment and appreciation for the work under the Panchayati Raj, he said computers in every village would soon revolutionise the locals' struggle and even create jobs for their children. Clinton seemed quite pleased when he was presented a smart card and offered a loan by the cooperative for raising milch cows. He smiled in return, saying he would display the card at the White House. He smiled all the way. Right up to Amber Fort, where 12 elephants had been lined up for him. He was keen on taking a ride but no, said the Secret Service. He had his little dig, though, even if in another context. "How nice to see some friendly elements,'' he smiled, referring to the Republican symbol. Afew hours later, Clinton and Chelsea flew to Ranthambore sanctuary and were thrilled to spot two tigers. They had gone in open canters with picnic hampers, kicking up a mini sandstorm. The joke doing the rounds was that Union Minister of State for Small-Scale Industries Vasundhara Raje, who went around with the President, would probably be spending the next two days shampooing her hair to get the dust out. After that, Clinton flew to Hyderabad where he kicked off a health project and visited the Hi-Tec City. Fittingly, he ended his trip to India in Mumbai talking to young entrepreneurs and focusing on the knowledge industry, key areas that would determine the future of Indo-US relations. He then flew to Islamabad for a tough- talking session with Pakistan's Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf. At the end of the visit, it was clear
that the US recognised India as a major player in ensuring security not
just in the region but in Asia itself. More significantly, the US may now
increasingly view democratic India as a counter to communist China in the
region. Much now depends on the follow through or what former foreign
secretary J.N. Dixit calls, " the operational rules" to the
vision statement and other agreements signed. There are clearly major
differences between the two countries that have to be overcome, especially
over the nuclear issue and sanctions. But the trip has gone a long way to
build mutual trust and holds the promises of a major shift in relations.
Jaswant Singh cautiously calls it a move in the right direction. Now only
the destination -- and the speed at which it can be reached -- has to be
decided. with Harinder Baweja in Jaipur, Sayantan Chakravarty in Agra, Rohit Vyas, Anshul Avijit in Delhi and bureau reports |
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It
is only when you see him up close that you understand why US President
Bill Clinton is not just the most powerful leader in the world but is such
an extraordinarily attractive survivor. The energy he exudes, the
legendary empathy he builds up instantaneously, his consummate skill in
putting across his view and the easy, boyish charm that hides a shrewd,
sharp mind, mesmerises those he encounters. Hardboiled Indian politicians
who packed the Central Hall of Parliament on March 22 to listen to him
were no exception.