The evolution of India’s foreign policy – Part XII

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was perceived by Indian voters as a strong and decisive leader in 1998-99. His 13 month long second term plus 6 months as ‘care-taker prime minister’ convinced the people that the country would be safer in his hands. General Elections were held in India from September 5 to October 3, 1999, a few months after the ‘Kargil War’. The BJP-led NDA had won 303 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha, thereby securing a comfortable, stable majority. The coalition government that was formed lasted its full term of 5 years – the only non-Congress government to do so. On October 13, 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as Prime Minister of India for the third time. Just a day earlier, General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of Pakistan Army and the main architect of the ‘Kargil War’, seized power in Pakistan in a bloodless coup from a democratically elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He probably found public support because of the ‘Kargil’ humiliation. This was bad news for India! On December 24, 1999, an Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was hijacked from Nepal by 5 Pakistani terrorists. The hijackers held 189 hostages and demanded the release of 3 dreaded, including Maulana Masood Azhar (founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed), Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (the killer of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl) from the Indian prison. Once a hostage was stabbed to death, Government of India capitulated under public pressure and released the terrorists in exchange for the hostages. India and the world is still paying the price for that error of judgment! The crisis ended on December 31, 1999.

President Bill Clinton visited India from March 19 – 24, 2000. His was the first state visit to India by a US President in 22 years. He became the first President of the United States to visit Bangladesh on March 20, 2000. Clinton also visited Pakistan for a few hours on his way back home. Obviously he had very little interest in Pakistan sponsored terrorism and the spread of Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Instead of chasing around the Islamic terrorists in a distant Indian subcontinent, he decided to chase ‘white-bimbos’ right at home in Washington DC. America and the world had to pay a staggering price in blood and treasure just 18 months later on September 11, 2001. Now in 20-20 hindsight, it appears that Vajpayee Administration, Clinton Administration as well as the Bush Administration, all of them failed to see the looming catastrophe in Af-Pak. Aside from terrorism, Clinton-Vajpayee dialogue proved to be a watershed in Indo-US relations. India did not look back till 2008 US elections!

President George W Bush took office on January 20, 2001. He came to power with a soft-corner for India! We thought it was because of Condi Rice, that eventually proved to be a myth. George Bush considered China to be a rival and not a partner. He believed that an alliance with Australia, India, Japan and Singapore would be in the best interest of US national security. He was in the process of developing a consensus for this alliance within his administration when suddenly 9/11 happened. The world changed that day and with that India’s foreign policy became hostage to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. President had little time for any other issue. He became a war-time president. India had no choice but to adjust to the realities on the ground. Vajpayee was the first head of the state to call President Bush and offer assistance. Bush appreciates that gesture till date! As if this was not bad enough, a group of masked terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament on December 31, 2001. The terrorists managed to kill several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed the men, who were later proven to be Pakistan nationals. Although the Government of Pakistan officially condemned the attack, Indian intelligence reports pointed the finger at a conspiracy hatched in Pakistan. Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered a mobilization of India’s military forces, and as many as 500,000 servicemen amassed along the international border. Pakistan responded in kind. The Indian subcontinent was heading towards a nuclear exchange!

The evolution of India’s foreign policy – Part XI

The Strobe Talbott – Jaswant Singh dialogue (June 1998-September 2000) laid the ground for Bill Clinton’s transformational visit to India in March 2000. That presidential visit opened a new chapter in relations between the United States and India. The bilateral dialogue grappled not only with the urgent issues of arms control and nuclear nonproliferation but also their visions for Indo-US relationship and the potential for economic and strategic cooperation between the two countries. My personal reading is that the developed world understands only one language and that is economic and military strength of its rival. The case in point is China. Russia is being pushed around these days because it does not have the economic muscle and Japan has never been taken seriously because it lacks the military muscle. China has a little bit of both and that is why it is being coddled by the entire world these days. India needs to not only enlarge its economic clout but also develop a credible military capability; only then the world would pay any attention to it. Having said that, there is a visible evolution in India’s stature in the world since May 1998. Just THINK about this!

Coming back to the Indian subcontinent, the Vajpayee administration began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan. With the historic inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999, Vajpayee initiated a new peace process aimed towards permanently resolving the Kashmir dispute and other territorial/nuclear/strategic conflicts with Pakistan. The resultant Lahore Declaration espoused a commitment to dialogue, expanded trade relations and the goal of denuclearized South Asia and mutual friendship. This eased the tension created by the 1998 nuclear tests, not only within the two nations, but also in South Asia and the rest of the world. While the Vajpayee government was in full throttle mode in terms of its foreign policy initiatives, domestically it was being undermined by a destructive regional satrap, the AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha. Finally, in May 1999, the AIADMK did pull the plug on the NDA, and the Vajpayee administration was reduced to a caretaker status pending fresh elections scheduled for October 1999. If you have friends like these, who needs an enemy? She is not the only crook, the other guy with dark glasses (DMK chief K Karunanidhi) is even worst. He openly supports the terrorists and he is a chief minister these days. Then there is Mamata Banerjee and Prakash Karat in West Bengal, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and my favorite, Thackerays in Maharashtra! With these guys floating around, who can focus on a stable foreign policy? Vajpayee was now just a caretaker Prime Minister.

While Prime Minister Vajpayee was busy making peace with Pakistan in February 1999, Pakistani Army was busy planning an attack and occupation of Kargil in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Indian army units were rushed into Kashmir in response. Operation Vijay was launched by the Indian Army in June 1999. Over 500 Indian soldiers died in the three-month long Kargil War, and it is estimated around 600-4000 Pakistani militants and soldiers died as well. India pushed back the Pakistani militants and Northern Light Infantry soldiers. Almost 70% of the territory was vacated by Pakistan. With news of Pakistan planning to launch a nuclear attack or a nuclear threat in the face of a lost war with India, Nawaz Sharif was summoned to the US by Bill Clinton. After heavy losses and a recalcitrant general in Musharraf, and with both the United States and China refusing to condone the incursion or threaten India to stop its military operations, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked the remaining militants to stop and withdraw to Pakistan-administrated Kashmir. The militants, driven by Islamic zeal, were not willing to accept orders from Nawaz Sharif while the NLI soldiers withdrew. The militants were killed by the army or forced to withdraw in skirmishes which went beyond the announcement of withdrawal by Pakistan. This naked aggression by Pakistan convinced President Bill Clinton to stand with India and develop a stable relationship with a tested democracy. President George W Bush continued and enlarged the Indo-US relationship. Now President Barack Obama wants to go back and start the sordid drama all over again!

Bride burning to bimbo bashing…

India has come a long way! During the nineteenth century we used to push the widow in her husband’s funeral pyre and call that a ‘Sati’. When that was banned, we started burning the young brides who did not bring enough cash for their worthless husbands. That was not legal so now our ‘guardians of Hindu morality’ have started bashing the bar frequenting bimbos. India sure is emerging with all these ‘Senas’ to protect our morality and the ‘Hindu Sanskriti’. Beating-up young and unprotected daughters the ‘Sainiks’ are well trained to be deployed at ‘Kargil’ to protect the ‘Hindu Rashtra’. The sub-zero temperatures would freeze the Sainik’s tushies and that is how we shall have peace in our cities! To save our national honor, these Senas should be led from the front by our moral leaders like Bal Thackerey, Praveen Togadia and Pramod Mutalik. If we are lucky we would loose all three as ‘Shaheeds’ in the lap of Himalayas. If they promise not to come back, we would pledge to build a statue for each, just like Shivaji. Just THINK about this phenomenal idea!

The fact of the matter is that I am so impressed with this Pramod Muthalik or Mutalik guy that I want to raise my own ‘Sena’ and it would be called, “Sri Ravana Sena”. As soon as I am able to organize this ‘Sena’, I would immediately abduct Pramod Mutalik’s wife and bring her to my ‘Vatica’ (Garden). She would be confined to the ‘Asoka Tree’, completely out-doors. Every morning I would perform a ‘tandav nratya’ to scare the shit out of her and then propose to her to marry me! In case Pramod Mutalik finds out that his wife is missing, he might launch an attack with his Sri Rama Sene (SRS) on my Sri Ravana Sena. Since my ‘Sena’ would be smaller than his because of the recession, I would request Renuka Chowdhury (Union Minister for Women and Child Development) to help me fight the imposing ‘sena’ of 40 goons of Pramod Mutalik. Renuka Chowdhury is the only minister who is not scared of this Mutalik guy! Palaniappan Chidambaram (now the Union Home Minister) is another brave guy who is not scared of this scary Pramod Bhai Mutalik.