Why is India jittery about Great President Obama? Does India not want to see a peaceful and just solution to the Kashmir and other issue?
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India jittery on change in US
NEW DELHI (Agencies) - On the day of Obama inauguration, a “nervous” Indian Foreign Secretary wondered what the new US President might mean for India.
Is India feeling jittery about the Barack Obama administration? India’s Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said he was “nervous” about this change. “How much will the US change is a matter of speculation… I am nervous what this change will mean,” Menon said while interacting with students of Delhi University, according to an article carried by India Today on Tuesday. Menon may have reasons to be “nervous”. Obama had made it amply clear soon after he won the presidential election that he would appoint a special envoy for Kashmir. Then, last week, in her testimony to the US Congress, Obama’s UN Ambassador- designate Susan Rice called Kashmir as one of the “ global hot spots” and compared it to conflict areas such as the Golan Heights, the Balkan region, Liberia and East Timor. In one of her earlier statements, Susan Rice, the former foreign policy adviser to Obama, had said that Kashmir, along with Chechnya and Iraq, is an active recruiting ground for Al-Qaeda.
In her testimony to the US Senate on January 13, US Secretary of State- designate Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration will support the bill the President-elect and the vice president-elect Joe Biden had introduced last year to triple non-military aid to Pakistan. In a speech to the US Senate on July 15 last year, Obama had said, “We must expect more of the Pakistani government, but we must offer more than a blank check…** It’s time to strengthen stability by standing up for the aspirations of the Pakistani people. That’s why I’m cosponsoring a bill with Joe Biden and Richard Lugar to triple non- military aid to the Pakistani people.” Lugar, a Republican senator from Indiana, is a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.**
India has consistently opposed the appointment of a special US envoy for Kashmir (news reports suggest the envoy could be former President Bill Clinton) saying Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, Obama is determined to make the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as the centre point of America’s fight against terror. One of the reasons for the tripling of the non-military aid to Pakistan is to encourage the democratically-elected government to support America’s war against terror, especially in the border regions where Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is rumoured to be hiding. As a quid pro quo for Pakistan’s state support, New Delhi fears the Obama administration could make certain pro-Pakistan concessions on the Kashmir issue.
Will Obama make pro- Pak concessions? Former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said it is natural for the US to give primacy to its strategic interests. “But it does not mean India should sacrifice its national interests,” he added. “This will undermine the Indo-US strategic partnership developed over years. India should not pay any price for the US Afghan policy,” he said. Former NSA Brajesh Mishra has said Obama’s personal involvement in the Kashmir issue would damage Indo- US relations.
