RAM PUNIYANI traces the history of Indo-US relations and opines that India should not succumb to the bait of Nuclear Deal as it would harm our interests.
The opposition of Left front to Indo US nuclear deal is guided by many factors. One of them is the growing subservience of India to the designs of US in the world. US has been trying to sound softer to India for the last several years. It is also clear that its policymakers want to ensure that India tilts to US over a period of time. The keenness which they are showing in having India sign the nuclear deal makes it clear that the US aims to benefit a lot from this deal. Apart from other things, the major focus of US is that the nonalignment movement, which India has been spearheading for the last few decades comes to a stand still. Why this shift on the part of US? Why this sudden love for India?
US emerged as a major player in the world political scene after the World War II. The place occupied by England in the domination of the world through its colonial might was gradually passed on to the US, and UK started playing the second fiddle. Around this time when US was emerging as the major imperial power, India got its freedom and was struggling to lay the base of industries in the country.
Even at the time of independence Nehru, the visionary Primer Minister, could see that India cannot develop just by depending on the industrial production coming from the west, and so, parallel to the thinking of industrialists of the country, he came to envision the outline of public sector, meant to provide the infrastructure for the further industrial growth. The concepts of cooperative farming and public sector were promoted and these laid the basis of India’s future development. These were the policies which US opposed and in India the Swatanta Party was the unabashed supporter of US policies on industrial front and RSS and its affiliates also played the pro-US tune.
During the crucial period of growth of infrastructure US refused to give the core technology to India. It was more interested in bringing different countries in the fold of its military block and opposed the Russian policies at different levels. At political level India was supporter of the National liberation movements of different colonies while US saw differently, and even went on to undertake massive wars to prevent countries from getting independence. The example of Vietnam is there far all of us to see. While India as a state opposed the US military intervention in Vietnam, RSS was supportive of US brutality on Vietnamese people on the ground that US is leading the forces of Dharma (religiously ordained moral duties) in the world.
India seriously pursued the industrial growth, unlike the banana republics at different places and laid the relatively solid foundations for the growth along with a foreign policy which not only suited the interests of India but also of various growing nations the world over.
Around this time the issue of Kashmir was being debated in the United Nations. India’s argument was that Pakistan had attacked Kashmir and should vacate the same. US along with its allies in the Security Council constantly put pressure on India and it was only Russian veto which came to the support of India’s policies in the Security Council and thereby the United Nations.
When India began to take central lead in the Non-Alignment movement, the USA and the whole of western block dubbed this valuable movement as being a pro-Russian phenomenon. They put all obstacles in the path of the growth of this movement which was protecting the neutral and small nations from the aggressive designs of USA and its allies. Needless to say that RSS and its political child BJP were continuously pro-US and kept opposing the efforts for development of a peaceful south Asia. Their plank was that India should pursue the aggressive expansionist policy.
The formation of Bangladesh was another issue where India had to face the wrath of USA. Due to the repression unleashed by Pakistani army in East Pakistan, there started a huge influx of refugees in India. At this point Mujibur Rahman’s Mukti Bahini was struggling for separate nationhood. It was opposed to the dominant military clique of West Pakistan, which also imposed Urdu as the national language in Pakistan. India’s help to People of East Pakistan was backed by the Russian state and seriously opposed by the USA which brought its 7th Fleet into the Bay of Bengal to frighten the India army.
During the era of cold war, the USA had been gradually increasing its clout to interfere in all the matters of the world. It also propped up Israel, which is the major aggressor in West Asia and is responsible for biggest violations of UN resolutions so far. It is US again which in pursuit of control of oil resources in the West Asia propped up Al Qaida with Osama as it head, which after defeating the Russian armies turned its attention to other parts of the world.
While in India, the right wing politics had been rearing its head on the plank of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim, it got great amount of boost from the ideology of clash of civilizations being endorsed by the US foreign policy. This ideology is a cover to attack, one after another, countries in the oil zone. India is caught in the crossfire between the US goals of imperial lust and the Frankenstein monster created by it in the form of Al Qaeda and other terrorist outfits in the same mould.
US record in invading different countries in the world is pathetic. During the last 50 years it attacked over 20 countries on one pretext or the other. Its attempt to dominate the world through wars has been a big setback to the peace efforts in the world. A look at the list of counties America has bombed since the World War II says it all.
Today the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have affected India’s political atmosphere apart from losing the support of friendly countries. There is a heavy interaction of India and US in the area of education, employment and Information technology related enterprises. US based NRIs have been a big source of funding support for the Hate Groups, sending money to them for the hate politics, which is inciting violence in various parts of the country.
India had been a strong promoter of global democracy and the UN intervention for world peace. With the US efforts to diminish the political and moral authority of UN, India’s aspiration to strive for a peaceful global atmosphere has got a sort of a jolt. It is in the interest of India that she escapes from the clutches of US and attempts to build a non-aligned world, based on mutual respect and upholding of human rights of all nations and peoples of the world. The subservience to US will be a doom not only for India’s path to progress but also to the peace in the world as a whole.