A week before
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] and United States
President Barack Obama's [ Images ] first high-level
talks in Washington, India [ Images ] got a 'shocker'
from Obama via Beijing [ Images ].
The joint
statement issued by US and China, after the talks between Obama and
Chinese President Hu Jintao, declared that both sides "support the
improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan."
This
created much confusion and suspicion in New Delhi [ Images ].
"At a
time when Indian public opinion was looking forward to fruitful results
from the forthcoming visit of PM Singh to the US, reports from Beijing
on Obama's visit to China would strengthen the impression that Obama is
not well-disposed towards India," said strategic analyst B Raman.
America and China have named India and
Pakistan in their joint statement after a decade -- but the last time US
was furious over India conducting the Pokhran nuclear tests. This time,
the joint statement has raised questions about Obama's understanding of
India.
G Parthasarathy, former high commissioner to Pakistan,
told rediff.com, "India has cause to be concerned when there is
collusion or confrontation, rather than constructive cooperation,
between the United States and China. The statements made during Obama's
visit to China smacked of collusion, giving China the status of a
regional hegemon -- that too just after China's role in providing
nuclear weapon capabilities to Pakistan was made public in the US."
He added, "There is no room for a third
chair on the table on India-Pakistan issues".
There are many
questions that will not be answered soon. Why did the US and China agree
to mention differences between India and Pakistan, which require
'improvement'?
Did US propose and China accept to insert
such a line, or did both nations want to send their own messages in
South Asia? What is China gaining by such a move, when it knows well
enough that India will never agree to any kind of mediation in Kashmir [
Images ]? Why is US
irritating India, when in less than seven days, the top leaders of both
sides are meeting with lots of expectations.
Mohun Guruswami --
author of Chasing the Dragon: Will India catch up with China
--questions US' intentions.
He says America is failing in Afghanistan
and has been unable to put effective pressure on Pakistan to rein in
the Jihadis. The US wants Pakistan to perform at any cost.
By mentioning India and Pakistan in the
joint statement, "The US expects India to jeopardise its own future by
putting Kashmir on the table just to enable the US to get out of its
predicament," he says.
Guruswami adds, "President Obama has
compounded this by suggesting in Beijing that the US would now like
China to play a role in improving India-Pakistan relations. Now Obama
wants to bring China into the equation?"
Many Indian experts
have written in the past that China wants to limit India in the 'South
Asia box'. Many experts told rediff.com that the joint
statement serves China's purpose in this respect.
Obama, during a press briefing in
Beijing, said that China and US will work together to bring about
'peaceful relations in all of South Asia'.
A New Delhi based
former secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs said the US seems
to be gaining in many ways. Pakistan wants to internationalise its
tension with India over Kashmir. Mentioning the Indo-Pak differences in
the joint statement helps Pakistan in this respect. Also, it clearly
shows that America wants to engage China at a higher level for its own
advantage and Obama's visit has taken China many steps up the ladder.
However,
senior strategic analyst K Subrahamanayam doesn't think the current
issue is so important. He feels that in the past, China had done far
more serious things, which have not been in India's interests, and the
US has looked the other way. India didn't raise any objections then, so
why complain over a relatively small matter now, says Subrahamanayam.
"China
has been intervening in India-Pakistan affairs since 1965. It
intervened in 1971. It armed Pakistan with nuclear weapons and missiles
in the 1980s and 1990s.The US looked away. China conducted a nuclear
test for Pakistan on May 26, 1990. Eighty per cent of Pakistani weapons
are procured from China. India has been keeping mum over all these
developments all these years. Making a song and dance over the
relatively mild reference at this stage appears to be a case of making a
mountain out of a molehill," says Subrahamanayam.
Reacting sharply to the joint statement,
the External Affairs Ministry said, "The government of India is
committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a
peaceful bilateral dialogue in accordance with the Simla Agreement. A
third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary. We also
believe that a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can take place only in
an environment free from terror or the threat of terror."
However,
former ambassador M K Bhadrakumar underscored the need for equanimity
on India's part as a mature regional power. He said, "The US stands
discredited in Pakistan and has lost the Afghan war. The US undermines
Sri Lankan leadership, which China and India support, and it robustly
challenges China's influence in Myanmar. What US-China collusion can be
possible?"
He added, "China and the US know it isn't in
India's DNA to accept mediation. Let us not be jumpy. Be mature enough
to read the unusually lengthy joint statement in the totality of Obama's
visit, which was long on rhetoric but paltry in substance, with China
holding firm against American demands."
In essence, Indian
experts' ire is less against China but more against the US, over the
inclusion of the 'India-Pakistan issue' in the joint statement.
"'China has revealed its hand whenever it
mattered to India, be it at the International Atomic Energy Agency or
on the expansion of the United Nations Security Council. Today, even as
India begins to have fewer doubts about where it stands vis-a-vis China,
it is being gnawed by doubts where it stands vis-a-vis the USA," says
Guruswami.