Amid the national outrage that has broken out over the shocking treatment that the US authorities have given to Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, we keep encountering the angry refrain: ‘How dare the Americans treat us in this manner!' We would not have come to this pass had we taken strong exception to similar insults in recent months by the world's self-appointed policeman.
We swallowed those humiliations and allowed the Americans to believe that they can trample all over us, without us even wriggling in discomfort. The same Congress-led UPA Government, which has today taken an uncharacteristically hard position on the Khobragade issue, remained silent and impotent in the face of earlier provocations. It's that pusillanimity which has landed us in the situation which we find ourselves now, with an Indian lady diplomat stripped of her dignity by a country which is supposed to be our friend and natural ally.
In 2005, the US placed a ban on issuing a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the ground that he was complicit in alleged human rights violations in connection with the violence of 2002. This was a clear affront to national pride and an insult to the country's democratic ethos, besides being a personal slight to the Chief Minister himself. Mr Modi was (and remains) an elected Chief Minister of an Indian State, and no country had the right to insult a democratically elected leader of India. The Congress-led UPA regime should have protested strongly and acted accordingly. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet did nothing of the sort. On the contrary, they revelled in the development as the issue involved Mr Modi.
The Government did not initiate even a half-hearted retaliatory measure. It did not bother to remind the US that American Presidents had suffered no pangs of self-righteousness when they wined and dined with brutal dictators from across the world. They pampered even those like Yahya Khan who presided over the genocide in what was then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. Richard Nixon's fondness for the Pakistani despot and his contempt for those who spoke against Khan's brutality are well-documented. The Americans did business with Zia-ul-Haq although the military dictator had hanged the democratically elected Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. They also were on close terms with General Pervez Musharraf who dislodged a democratically elected Prime Minister in Pakistan.
The US may argue that these are different situations and bear no comparison with the denial of a visa to Mr Modi. But ‘human rights’ were hardly upheld during the military regimes and in the mass slaughter of Bengali Muslims and Hindus in East Pakistan. In each of the above quoted instances, the actions of the Generals has been proven and not denied. But Mr Modi has not been indicted by any court of the country for the alleged wrongs. Yet, the US Administration denied him a visa. We swallowed the insult.
Why should we blame the Americans if they believed that, having snubbed one of India's tallest contemporary leaders without inviting even a squeak of real protest by the Indian regime, they could get away with hand-cuffing, strip-searching and cavity-searching a ‘mere' diplomatIJ If the Government had woken up in 2005, the Khobragade fiasco would perhaps not have taken place.
Not only has the Congress-led regime not shown spine earlier, it has been almost patronising to acts of impropriety by MPs who apparently owe more allegiance to the US rather than to their people’s political wisdom. Five months ago, some 65 Members of Parliament wrote directly to US President Barack Obama and urged him not to reconsider the ban on issuing a visa to Mr Modi. Such has been their hatred for a leader elected by the people of a State within the Indian Union that they directly wrote to a foreign head of state. The presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament should have taken serious note of the development and acted appropriately. But nothing happened, with political parties to whom these MPs belonged washing their hands of the matter. Again, why should the US Administration not have entertained the belief that it could get away with anything short of murder when it comes to IndiaIJ
Another recent case of New Delhi's subservient attitude towards the superpower came into the open when it meekly responded to the news that the US's National Security Agency had been snooping on Indian assets. According to an exposé by whistleblower Edward Snowden, India was the most snooped nation among the BRICS group. The first reaction of a Union Minister was that the US had not been ‘spying' but merely collecting some data! This was in contrast to the strong protests other, smaller, nations who had been the targets, had lodged at the highest levels of the US Administration.
While it is true that India and the US share a deep relationship, these ties have to be based on mutual respect. New Delhi cannot expect the world to stand up in its support if it does not do anything to uphold its own dignity and respect.
The servile attitude of the UPA regime has not been limited to the US. We have been equally cowardly in dealing with even a regional superpower — China. That country's troops enter deep into Indian territory, put up their tents and proceed to stay there for more than a fortnight and provoke us. What was our responseIJ One Union Minister called the intrusion an “acne on the face” and another said it was a “localised problem”. A third Minister offered the explanation that the Chinese action was a result of “differences in perception” about the borders. There was neither anger nor concern.
Any self-respecting regime would have taken the most severe action. On the contrary, the Indian External Affairs Minister proceeded with his China visit as if nothing had happened. Is it any wonder that, given India's spineless conduct, Beijing should continue to treat New Delhi with utter contemptIJ
The problem is that our foreign policy has become hostage to the Government's soft-approach. We have cringed from being decisive even when we needed to assert — and reassert — ourselves. One incident after the other, we have allowed our self-esteem to be crushed, all the while believing that we were engaged in the highest form of diplomacy which could fetch our Prime Minister a Nobel Prize some day. The Devyani Khobragade incident should divest us of the wisdom of supplicating. The Government of the day does not matter. Regardless of the party in power, our policies must, first and foremost, be those that protect our national honour and integrity. The earnest Barack Obama and the practical Xi Jinping and the various others must take second position.