US India Alliance and Global Equations Ram Puniyani

US India Alliance and Global Equations

Ram Puniyani

Published on February 13, 2007

When George W.Bush visited India, it was a mixed reaction from this country. While the Government was laying vacuum cleaned red carpet, its allies were protesting on the streets. A section of progressive liberals was joining them and different shades of Muslims protested under different banners. Most of media was jubilant, and only a miniscule of commentators raised the question as to why after decades of ignoring India why US administration is deciding to become pro India? One recalls that India had to slog the hard way to build its industrial and educational infrastructure without any help from the US. This biggest democracy of ours was not in the right books of the US, so why this current oozing of warmth from the mightiest of mighty nation?

The signing of the nuclear deal is just a small part of the whole relationship. US is roping India into its camp. Indian government, overwhelmed by the glamour and power of US might, has a feeling that it is getting its due from the most powerful country. The global equations are changing and this one marks the serious turn. So far till the decades of 1980 US was battling and demonizing the USSR, which happened to be the other mighty pole of World power. During the cold war era US faced a stiff challenge to its agenda of World domination from USSR. US did replace the declining colonial states like UK, France and Holland at places. Its policies during this time mainly supported the dictators and despots, it propped up the regimes which were dead opposed to democratic values and went on to the extent of mauling the Vietnamese nationalism with napalm bombs.

It is another matter that Vietnam turned the tide and US had to bite the dust in its hegemonic ambitions. US is the only power in the World to have used the nuclear bomb so far. It had unleashed a massive propaganda war against communism to back up its global policy. It could smell a communist rat every where before it had to launch its military cat to pounce on the independence of small and weak countries. Examples abound, Iran 1953, Chile 1973 being two standing out and showing the intent of US imperialism and its lust for global resources. Its policies in due course led to rise of fundamentalism in various countries. In Iran when it overturned Mossadeq and installed Raza Shah Pehlavi as the ruler, whose policies in turn led to frustration and rebellion which got usurped by Ayatollah Khomeini. Taliban was another outcome of US policies.

It propped up AL Qaeda to fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. As per the Kissinger doctrine, ï¿½Asians should fight Asiansï¿½. It did not want to repeat its mistake in Vietnam and set up mechanisms to train the young Muslims as fighters under the garb of Jihad. The support to Al Qaeda, Osama, its ally, was to the extent of 8000 million dollars and 7000 tons of armaments including the dreaded stringer missiles. With the defeat of USSR the subsequent events led to the rise of Taliban.

US intervention in the world, after the collapse of USSR was much easier. It now floated the theory of ï¿½Clash of Civilizationsï¿½, the battle between the advanced Western civilization and the backward Islamic civilization. The intensity of propaganda and doctoring of mass consciousness was intense and formed the base of US aggression against Iraq (1991) Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Now it is planning to occupy Iran on one or the other pretext. The battle in the World is projected as the clash of civilizations, religions to hide the basic aim of controlling the oil resources and political hegemony.

Islam is a threat to World is the new slogan coined by US to occupy the oil rich zone, which also happens to be Muslim. This slogan has replaced its earlier one of communism as the threat to democracy and freedom, whose custodianship is supposed to be with this friend-in-chief of most of the dictators. It has trampled UN, by bypassing it to begin with and now by totally ignoring it in the new designs as the World emperor.

The changing dynamics of development is seeing that China is coming up strong and fast as a potential super power. US will undertake every possible move to create and alliance which is formidable and can take on the other superpower in case it comes in the way of US designs on the political and economic control of the World. India by now has come up with a substantial industrial and military prowess to act as one of the junior partners of US in the new scenario. The new found love of US for India is based on this practical calculation; it is based on its own ambition to be bale to continue its domination on the World.

The section of Indian elite and middle class is in total awe of this super bully. So from last one decade it has been making all overtures to US to be accepted as its cohort. It offered its bases during its aggression on Afghanistan and now has voted against Iran on the nuclear issue. Not to see this long term interest of US to checkmate China and to be overwhelmed by US gestures will be suicidal for Indiaï¿½s interests in the medium and long term. The need is to strengthen the global peace movement and to build a non aligned movement which can take on the might of US, to strive for a global democracy amongst nations of the World, by the revival and improvement in the norms of United Nations as a potential World government, and also to bring back the aspiration of the people of the World as enshrined in the United Nations Charter of Human rights.

Ram Puniyani is a Professor at IIT Mumbai and is associated with EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai .