NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

New Delhi not worried about US snub

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The ministry of external affairs is not unduly worried about US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's ''belittling'' statement yesterday.

She had sought to snub New Delhi by saying that President Bill Clinton's Indian visit is not a sign of Washington's approval to its policies and that not much should be expected from the trip.

"Madame Albright's outburst against India denotes that President Clinton's visit will generate yet another set of pious intentions by the two largest democracies in the world," diplomatic sources told rediff.com. "You can rest assured, we are not tearing our hair about it," they said.

They, however, reiterated that the US president was a honoured guest.

The statement of the US secretary of state and New Delhi's reconciliation to it has pushed matters back to square one.

Officials in the MEA do not hesitate to attribute Washington's obvious disillusionment with India to the sudden change in the tone and tenor on the nuclear issue by the National Democratic Alliance government.

It has been underlined that during the last round of talks between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, New Delhi told Washington that it required some more time to build a national consensus on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

"In effect, what this means is that India is not willing to sign the CTBT which is admittedly an obsession with the US," the sources emphasised.

MEA officials indicated that while they were rolling out the red carpet to the US president in every sense, the nuclear issue was one area "in which we just cannot afford to be hasty, after all it entails national security".

One senior official went to the extent of emphasising that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee might broach the subject of global elimination of nuclear weapons - a favourite theme of the Indian leadership on global disarmament.

The sources pointed out that India's unhappiness over Washington's stance on the recent hijacking of the Indian Airlines Airbus might crop up in the discussions between the visiting US dignitary and the Indian leadership led by the prime minister.

New Delhi was "extremely unhappy" over Washington's failure to publicly condemn the hijacking of the Indian Airbus and that had left a bad taste in the mouth of the Indian security set-up.

"Whatever goodwill was earned by President Clinton at the time of the Kargil war was lost by the US response to the hijacking of Flight IC 814," the sources said.

South Block has not failed to note that the Taliban in Afghanistan had repeatedly announced that it was being counselled by the US during the hijacking of the Indian aircraft and that the Taliban leadership was following Washington's advice.

The sources said India's misgivings about Washington were further strengthened following the US failure to categorically condemn Pakistan's role in the hijack drama, "about which there is plenty of evidence but the US chose to turn a blind eye".

It has been stressed that the "changed Indian attitude" infuriated professional bureaucrats like Albright because it was obvious that New Delhi was not falling in line with the US on security issues.

Significantly, the "advance tour parties" comprising officials from Washington are understood to have reported back that the Indian ''admiration'' for the US is "notoriously superficial".

According to the sources, a US official, who was in New Delhi in January-end, had remarked that "the Indian infatuation with the US is not even skin-deep".

The sources underscored that this summed up Indian sentiments towards Clinton's impending visit.

They added that recently Defence Minister George Fernandes and National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra had openly talked about Washington's "lackadaisical attitude" towards Indian security concerns.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report