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RIGHT
ANGLE
Bush
Is Good News For Us
Conservatives won't be so jolly but aren't infuriatingly preachy
By Swapan
Dasgupta
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Jayanto
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There
is a quaint story about the time former prime ministers John
Major and P.V. Narasimha Rao met in London during a bilateral visit in
1994. "I am supposed to mention Kashmir in our discussions,"
Major is said to have told Rao, "I have mentioned it." The story
is probably apocryphal. But in the week that sees the return of a Republican
to the White House, the story is a small reminder of India's natural comfort
level with conservative administrations since the conclusion of the Cold
War.
This is
not to suggest that the last two years of Bill Clinton's administration
were inimical to India. A product of the swinging Sixties, Clinton let
his generation's fascination for Indian exotica override the more hostile
inclinations of his State Department. Of course, that's not the whole
explanation for the Indo-US honeymoon after the tremors of Pokhran. But
history isn't always dictated by impersonal forces, as Marxists like to
believe. The personal preferences of leaders do have a way of shaping
events, even things as abstruse and grandiose as foreign policy.
Not that
there is even a whiff of India in the intellectual baggage that President
George W. Bush carries with him to the White House. If anything, America's
43rd President remembers Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the elusive
answer to that impertinent question which caused him so much public embarrassment
during the election campaign. But that shouldn't worry decision-makers
in the South Block. As good conservatives of the "compassionate"
variety, the new administration's priorities are markedly different from
the sanctimoniousness that would have followed the initial years of an
Al Gore presidency. The Bush administration is expected to go slow on
the indignant non-proliferation agenda of both Clinton and the pesky American
think tanks on their proselytising missions in India. It will not be unduly
swayed by the Green eco-fundamentalism that has gripped multilateral agencies
like the World Bank. It is expected to engage China in a way that is ultimately
beneficial to India. Finally, it is certain to be more uncompromising
in countering the terrorist jehad that threatens civil society throughout
Asia. On the face of it, therefore, India will be justified in hoping
that the upturn in bilateral relations heralded by Clinton's hugely successful
visit last year will persist and acquire greater depth under President
Bush.
Of course,
these are early days, with many imponderables like the developments in
Capitol Hill. But what sets conservative governments apart from their
liberal or socialist counterparts is a disinclination to be infuriatingly
preachy. The Clinton administration, for example, miscued its Afghanistan
policy by initially focusing on Hillary Clinton's preoccupation with the
denial of women's rights rather than the Taliban's role in fomenting Islamic
terrorism. Likewise, Indo-British relations in the first year of Tony
Blair's Government were soured by its so-called "ethical" foreign
policy that focused on non-essentials. It led to bizarre encounters, like
a visiting British minister telling a senior Indian minister that he should
be talking about accepting "development assistance" rather than
promoting bilateral trade. It led to one "friend of Bill" US
ambassador believing that dignitaries from home could improve their understanding
of local conditions by supping with fashion designers. Conservatives may
be less agreeable socially but they know the world much better.
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