One cannot but recall the Shakespearean warning to Julius Ceasar regarding the Ides of March. Ceasar ignored the warning and death followed soon after.

Never before has an Indian government so shamelessly begged a US President to visit the country. While the Vajpayee government may see this visit as a feather in its cap, sealing the subservience of India to US interests, the people of India are aware that this visit comes at a time when US pressures against our sovereignty are at their height. The US sanctions and technological blockades, including the dual use technology, that were imposed since the 1974 Pokhran tests, continue to remain in place. Nearly 150 institutions and organisations continue to be barred from having any contact with US agencies. The USA continues to impose restrictions on India developing its self-reliant defence technologies, including the cryogenic rockets.

Instead of mounting an offensive against such sanctions, the Vajpayee government has conducted clandestine talks with the US, refusing to divulge their content to Parliament and the people. Ten rounds of talks have taken place between Jaswant Singh and Strobe Talbot. The Vajpayee government's servile approach notwithstanding, the USA had displayed a most vacillating attitude during the recent hijacking episode and treated the Vajpayee government's plea to declare Pakistan as a terrorist state with scornful contempt. Despite this, the Vajpayee government has, for all practical purposes, succumbed to the US pressures on signing the CTBT in defiance of and rejecting the national consensus, so far, of not signing such discriminatory treaties.

It is in the sphere of economic policy that the Vajpayee government has already shown itself to be the most vulnerable to US pressures. The latest example is the prompt manner in which this government lifted quantitative restrictions on imports immediately post-Seattle, merely after a luncheon meeting Clinton had with Maran at Seattle, when the WTO deadline for such measures was only 2003! It is there for all to see, and the American Administration and Clinton make no secret of it that US pressures continue for further opening up of the Indian economy, and getting agreement for bringing into the WTO agenda issues of labour and environmental standards. As though in response to the announcement of Clinton's visit, the Union Cabinet has thrown open virtually the entire industrial sector for foreign direct investment on the automatic approval route.

The Vajpayee government's efforts to placate the USA have been unprecedented. The opening up of the insurance sector was followed by the amendments in the patent law, both directly beneficial to US interests. The more the Vajpayee government succumbs to US pressures, the more the demands made by US imperialism.

Clearly, this visit may well lay the foundations for the complete subservience of Indian interests to US imperialism. The Vajpayee government is bending over backwards to appease the USA and virtually suggesting that India, under their government, is willing to replace Pakistan as the US surrogate in this region. The people of India must rise against this and never allow such a shameful surrender to US interests.