After accepting that the US will play the arbiter in the nuclear equation between India and Pakistan, after promising to sign the CTBT and echo the US world view that terrorism is the main danger to be fought at the international level, the US Administration announced that President Clinton would visit India early next year. The Kargil conflict and the US disapproval of the Pakistani intrusion across the Line of Control only heightened the BJP-led government's resolve to step up efforts to earn US approval to be considered as its main partner in South Asia. The Americans have hardly concealed their pleasure at the return of the Vajpayee government; it is someone they can do business with.

"Co-opting India

Even before the election results were out and the new government was formed, a succession of visits and exchanges took place. First came the visit of Michael Sheehan, the US Coordinator for Counter Terrorism. Out of this visit emerged the proposal for a joint working group on counter-terrorism. This was followed by the talks Jaswant Singh had with Madeline Albright during the UN Assembly session in New York. Apart from the usual issues of nuclear non-proliferation, CTBT and counter-terrorism, the two sides again discussed the creation of a "community of democracies". This is a theme which surfaced earlier during the Singapore meeting between the two. The community of democracies is an old idea of the Americans to co-opt countries which accept the American version of democracy and free markets into some sort of association. The Clinton Administration had earlier floated this idea for the Americas to include Latin America and the Caribbean. The fact that the BJP-led government is accepting such a blatant ideological platform shows the extent to which the BJP is now going alongwith the US global plans.

After the formation of the Vajpayee government, the BJP-led government received a succession of US officials. It began with the visit of Bruce Reidel of the National Security Council and Mathew Daley of the State Department. The developments in Pakistan and the nuclear issue were stated to be the subjects for discussion.

'Presidential' Style

Soon after the formation of the government, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Brijesh Mishra, who is also the National Security Advisor, paid a two-day visit to Washington. This event itself speaks for the now established style of the Vajpayee regime -- the presidential style. The "National Security Advisor" modelled on the American pattern made the first official contact with the US Administration. In Washington, Mishra characterised the state of Indo-US relations as the best since independence. Though details of the visit has been carefully camouflaged, it is clear that on a whole range of issues, an understanding has been firmed up. These pertain to nuclear non-proliferation, including the CTBT, economic affairs, the WTO talks and an overall political understanding leading to a strategic partnership between India and the US.

The highest ranking US official to come to India has been Bill Richardson, the Secretary of Energy. As a member of the Clinton Cabinet, he held the first round of high level talks with the Prime Minster and other senior leaders in the government.

Selective Lifting of Sanctions

The United States has announced the lifting of certain sanctions imposed after the Pokhran tests, which mainly concern credit facilities and loans to be made available to India by US banks and other financial institutions. In all the euphoria generated about the lifting of sanctions, a significant fact is not being highlighted. The US has not lifted sanctions on the 200 institutions and organisations which were named under the `Entities List' prohibiting US organisations from dealings with them.

An important step taken in the lifting of sanctions in the resumption of assistance to India under the International Military Education and Training (IMET) programme. This is the programme under which the Pentagon has military relations and training programme for the armed forces of various countries. It is through this notorious programme that the United States suborned the armed forces in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Guatemala to name a few Latin American countries. The Pakistani military which has now staged yet another coup is another beneficiary of this programme. Practically every military dictatorship in Asia and South America in the past few decades had links with the Pentagon through the IMET.

Within days of this, sanction being lifted by President Clinton, the Indian Chief of Army Staff, General V.P. Malik has gone to the US to hold talks with the American Generals to work out details of the military collaboration. What began during the Rajiv government in the late eighties as joint naval exercises, has now developed into a full-fledged strategic cooperation between the two armed forces. This is the most dangerous aspect of the Indo-US relations. The economic and political subordination to the US strategic aims will now have a military dimension. This will have grave consequences for India's sovereignty and democratic system. Recently, the Pentagon stopped all military support to the Indonesian army demanding that it withdraw from East Timor. It was the same army which was armed and instigated in 1965 to launch the massacre of the Indonesian Communists.

The United States, after financing the Islamic fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan in collaboration with Pakistan, is now alarmed at the activities of Osmana bin Laden, a product of this Pentagon-CIA venture. The BJP government has been quick to cash in on the rising concern of the US about terrorism being exported from Afghanistan. It has not only agreed to a joint working group on terrorism but also promised to set up an FBI office at New Delhi.

Two Setbacks

The American plan for creating a "community of democracies" and a free market region in South Asia with India being at the head, has seen two setbacks in this period. After intensive pressure and coaxing through the eight rounds of Strobe Talbott-Jaswant Singh talks, it had got India to commit to sign the CTBT. The American Senate's rejection of the ratification of the treaty has put the Clinton Administration in an awkward position. However, the reaction of the Indian government has pleased the Americans. The Vajpayee government has reiterated that it will seek a domestic consensus for joining the CTBT even after the Senate's refusal to ratify the treaty. In return, the BJP will get what it had desired for long -- the visit by a US President after a gap of 23 years.

The second problem which has cropped up in the American master plan for South Asia is the military coup in Pakistan. It has come at a time when it was moving smoothly in getting Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif to conduct a dialogue around the parameters set out by the US. The Kargil conflict was the first disturbing factor. Its destabilisation has led to the ouster of Nawaz Sharif. The Americans have never hesitated to do business with military dictators. But at present, when the chorus was to be "democracy with free markets", a military government in Islamabad is an embarrassment.

Though the Vajpayee government is unhappy about the US willingness to do business with the Musharraf regime, it cannot protest too much. After having accepted US intervention on Kargil, and after committing to go along with the American strategy for South Asia, both in the economic and military spheres, the Vajpayee government can only hope that the US will continue to patronise India more than Pakistan. However, despite the rosy optimism of the BJP policy makers, the US will still continue to treat Pakistan as a close ally.

Kashmir Proposals

This explains why the BJP is conspicuously silent on various proposals being floated about the future of Kashmir. The Kashmir Study Group based in New York has brought out variants of a plan to treat the whole of Kashmir as a single entity, with open borders, with joint supervision by India and Pakistan. The most dangerous aspect of the proposals are the efforts to divide Jammu & Kashmir on communal lines. (Praveen Swami in the Frontline issue of October 22 has given the details about the proposals).

The other area where the Americans are now pushing, is for a South Asian market where gas extracted by American companies from Bangladesh can be exported to India, and electricity produced in Nepal by US companies can be sold in India. The South Asian "democracies" must conform to the needs of the US multinational corporations and international finance capital.

The announcement of the resumption of the Strobe Talbott-Jaswant Singh talks to be held soon in London is a signal that both India and the US will work to put in place a strategic partnership. The irritants posed by the military regime in Pakistan and the continuing extremist attacks and violence in Kashmir 'will be taken care of', hopefully, with the help and advice of the world superpower.

All this is put forward as a bright outlook for India by the BJP and the whole tribe of foreign policy and strategic experts who now see things in saffron hues. But for all those who are concerned about India's future in the 21st century as an independent, strong and progressive country, the alarm bells are ringing loudly.

 Anti-Imperialist Charter for Clinton Visit

While the red carpet will be rolled out by the Vajpayee government and the BJP for President Clinton, the democratic and progressive forces in India should mobilise to give Clinton a different sort of welcome. A powerful anti-imperialist campaign has to be launched to mobilise the people in the context of the Clinton visit. An anti-imperialist charter should be presented on the occasion.

• The United States should stop its arm-twisting tactics towards India regarding its security, technological development and efforts to build up a self-reliant economy. There can be no subversion of India's sovereignty through military collaboration.

• The US should wind up the military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.  

• The United States should stop its attacks on third world countries and its blatantly illegal aggression on Iraq and Yugoslavia.

• It should lift the blockade of Cuba.

The list is long regarding the inequities and injustices perpetrated by US imperialism. President Clinton should be strongly reminded that the Indian people will not be subject to the American imperial order.