M A I N   N E W S

MEA silent on Powell’s remarks
Cong seeks explanation from govt
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 19
Mandarin in South Block here went into a huddle and held a series of meetings yesterday to assess the situation in the wake of US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s announcement that Washington would designate Pakistan as a “major non-NATO ally”.

Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra is understood to have discussed the matter with officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and Prime Minister’s Office yesterday. This meeting assumes significance as External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Foreign Secretary Shashank are not in the Capital — the former is in Hazaribagh on an election trail and the latter in Geneva.

US Ambassador here David C. Mulford sent his deputy, Robert Blake, to South Block to meet with MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) officials and explain Washington’s stand on the issue. Mr Blake is also understood to have assured New Delhi that the George W. Bush administration valued its strategic partnership with India and was committed to further strengthening of Indo-US relationship.

But, significantly, there has been no reaction from the MEA on Mr Powell’s remarks. Moreover, no official was prepared to answer a basic query whether Mr Powell had, during his talks with the Indian leadership, taken New Delhi into confidence on such a major announcement he was to make in Islamabad just a day later.

The Congress was quite vociferous today in its reaction to Mr Powell’s announcement and demanded an “explanation” from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the nation. Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said in his briefing that Mr Powell’s statement was a repudiation of the government’s claims of building a strategic alliance with the USA.

“The Government of India is building hype that India and the USA are natural allies,” Mr Sharma said and demanded to know whether Mr Powell had told the Prime Minister of his impending announcement in Islamabad. If Mr Powell did disclose this information, what was the PM’s response and if the Secretary of State did not then it was even more serious, as it puts a question mark on the much-hyped Indo-US strategic partnership, Mr Sharma said.

There was only a muted reaction from knowledgeable quarters in the government here but on the basis of total anonymity.

Here are some key factors why Mr Powell said what he said:

l Washington wants to project to the Islamic world that an important Muslim country like Pakistan is its strategic ally in the war against terror. This is all the more desirable for the post-Afghanistan, post-Iraq Bush administration, which desperately needs an image make-over in the Islamic world.

l Pakistan has consistently been doing the American bidding over the past five decades. In the 50s, the Americans wanted Pakistan to join SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organisation) and CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation), which Islamabad did. In the 80s, Washington wanted Islamabad to become a “frontline state” in the international effort to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan, which Pakistan did. After 9/11, the Bush administration wanted Pakistan to join the international war against the Taliban and the Al Qaida, which Islamabad did.

* Washington has often been criticised for dumping a nation (read Pakistan) after its foreign policy objectives have been achieved — an impression which the Bush administration apparently wants to correct. What more a nation-state or its political leadership has to do to win Washington’s confidence and favours, the argument goes.

* It is a typical balancing act in South Asia on part of the Bush administration — vowing to build a strategic partnership with its “natural ally” India, while making Pakistan as a “major non-NATO ally, a move which would strengthen defence cooperation between the two countries and lift restrictions on weapon sales to Islamabad.

However, government sources said Mr Powell’s announcement was fraught with risks for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf himself, as it would corroborate the fundamentalists’ impression that General Musharraf is an “American lackey”.