INIDA POST 9/11.

Up to September 10, 2001 India’s relationship with the United States could best be described as luke warm. It had been cold during the cold war, as India had ‘aligned’ herself with the alternate super of those days, the USSR. The souring of the relationship was begun by John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration. His foreign policy was simple: either for us or against us and no in-betweens. Then, India, under Nehru, was one of the five nations trying to walk the tightrope of non-alignment. Dulles pushed India towards Soviet Russia, and though India never did become a satellite we needed Russia for both arms and aid.

For two of the largest democracies, this was a strange and strained relationship. America, pursuing its own interests against Soviet Russia, had partnered Pakistan, despite its military dictatorial rule. This relationship both puzzled and irritated India. At times, India and America were over critical of each other. It looked then as if India and America would always view each other warily.

With the coming of President Clinton’s administration and the ending of the USSR’s super power status, our relationship with America began to thaw out. In the last months of his administration, President Clinton had visited India with all the pomp ceremony of an emperor. (Clinton did make a brief stopover in Pakistan to keep the ‘balance’, a few hours against the days he spent in India). He was the first US president to visit India for decades, since Jimmy Carter, and this was looked upon as a major turning point in our relations with America. Meanwhile, Pakistan still had excellent relationships with continuing US administrations, as way back then it had been a member of SEATO. Kissinger had used Pakistan also to pave the way for his visit to China. This was followed by President Nixon’s historic break through.

Pakistan has long been India’s bete-noir (and vice the versa, no doubt). We have Kashmir dividing us, a benighted people who are trapped between a rock and the hard place. Pakistan has certainly been the instigator in the terrorism that has plagued both Kashmir and India. It has given shelter, succour and arms to jihadi’s to launch their attacks on India. The statistics are grim reading, sixty thousand (give or take) have died in this ‘war’. Indian soldiers, police, terrorists and countless innocents trapped between the two forces have been the victims of terror. We have suffered terrorism for two decades and have tried to interest American and European leaders in reigning in Pakistan’s support of these terrorists. But the pleas were ignored. We weren’t exactly a beloved nation since we tested a nuclear device, followed swiftly by Pakistan’s own retaliatory testing.

On September 12, the relationship with America changed dramatically.

With this attack and casualties on its own soil, America joined the club of other nations that had suffered terrorism under one name or the other. India immediately offered her support to fight the terrorists, but America reached out for its old ally, Pakistan. It was the whole irony of that move which shouldn’t have surprised India. After all the Taliban was created and supported by Pakistan, the jihadis had safe bases in Pakistan. In other words, Pakistan knew the terrorists better than the victim India.

But India used September 11 as a leverage against Pakistan. Having been crying ‘terrorist’ for so many years, India was finally heard and believed, to its great relief. It had finally found a powerful ally, the remaining super power claimed to be full of understanding now. The American administration, on India’s insistence, began to pressure Pakistan to curb its cross-border terrorists. General Musharaff complied half heartedly by arresting the leaders of a few terrorist organisations and freezing bank accounts. (They were freed within the week). Despite such well-publicised moves by the General, the Indian parliament was attacked by terrorists last December.

America and Europe condemned the attacks, but in muted terms. Tut-tutting against such a barbaric assault. India wanted outrage and a clampdown on Pakistan. Terror and terrorism, India realised, could only be defined by the western nations. If the WTC is attacked, a bomb thrown at the British Parliament House, an assassination in Berlin, these are considered real terrorist attacks. (Admittedly, Britain has suffered from IRA bombings). They’re taken more seriously if a few Europeans die, than if a thousand Indians. I’m aware as a journalist, the harsh reality of the value of human beings.

But over the months, America and India have grown closer, the relationship warming up. America had long denied India the sophisticated surveillance technology, which India needed to keep watch on its borders. Now, they are available, along with, unfortunately, helicopter gunships, AWACS and other hi-tech weapons. Intelligence is being shared; the Indian navy now escorts American warships through the Malacca Straits. Admittedly, this last piece of co-operation baffles me. Why would warships needed other warships to protect them? And a month back, the US and Indian army were on joint manoeuvres near Agra. Everyone was smiling for the photographers. Because of September 11, America has finally acknowledged India’s presence in this part of Asia.

Unfortunately, America still has a greater need for Pakistan than for India. The Taliban and Al-queda fighters have slipped across the Afghan border into Pakistan and American forces needed General Musharaff’s co-operation to purse them. The Pakistan army is working alongside the American, Australian and British special forces to root them out. But with India’s new found relationship with the US, we have tried to pressure the Americans to in turn pressure Musharaff to curb the cross-border terrorists. I doubt this will ever be possible as Pakistan having mounted the tiger, is going to find it nearly impossible to dismount it. Terrorists, by the very nature of their ‘profession’, will not be controlled, even by a General. This proxy war will continue on and on, tragically.

Politically, India is now on the American travel itinerary. State Department officials, including Secretary Colin Powell, have dropped into New Delhi for long discussions. India’s Foreign Minister drops into Washington frequently to discuss issues that now interest both the countries. India’s Defence Minister, an old Socialist, now wanders American defence establishment with his wish list of weapons. The FBI, which had long wanted an office in New Delhi and which had long been denied, now has its wish. The most important aspect of this move, will be the exchange of intelligence on terrorist activity, both in India and in the States.

Intelligence has become the buzz word for tracking down terrorists and a number of them are using India as a base, both for violence as well as for the transference of funds through hawala dealers. Hawala meaning that foreign exchange transactions are carried out through private individuals, and not established institutions like banks. These are hard to track as there’s no paperwork but only coded messages. Someone pays money in India, or Pakistan, to a dealer and he gets his counterpart in Europe or America, to pay a person there. Hawala dealers have been plying their trade for centuries but the Americans only discovered their existence after September 11.

September Eleventh also changed our economic relations with America and the European nations. Both of them had imposed sanctions against India (and Pakistan) for detonating nuclear devices. Under the Clinton administration and the gentle thawing, some minor sanctions had been lifted. But now most of them have gone. The World Bank and the IMF are now back doing business in India; our gold credit card has been given back. Japan, which had also applied sanctions, lifted them soon after the Americans and Europeans did. September 11th brought a certain normalcy back to India in terms of trade and business.

Foreign investors began to look with more interest at India as a lucrative destination. America had given us the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. Admittedly, the WTO did force India to lift tariffs and begin economic reforms. The reforms, though, have been side tracked by New Delhi’s increasing preoccupation with terrorism.

I doubt whether terrorism will ever be contained, even by super power America with the full co-operation of Europe and India. There is no cure for the infection, it re-occurs under different guises, different causes. India’s only grateful that the WTC tragedy of September 11 helped it to find partners and understanding outside its own borders.