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Hindu, Yankee bhai bhai

How far can two perfectly sensible governments go in scoring silly brownie points off each other? Do half-wits determine foreign policy or are we so incorrigibly stupid that we always miss the wood for the trees? The Americans, of course, amaze me by their pig-headedness. They are more pig-headed than you and I can imagine. Sad, considering the fact that they are today the strongest nation in the world.

But what is sadder is that they are also cussed, unimaginative, arrogant. This may explain why they find themselves in such a mess every time they globally intervene. They end up losing both sides while trying to back one. And the side they back is always packed with free-loaders, tin-pot dictators, thick-headed army generals lusting for power. Somehow they can never deal with decent, independent-minded leaders. They love creepy crawlies whom they think they can use, manipulate and (when the need arises) squash.

But this column is not about how stupid the US is. It is about how churlish we are.

No nation can shoot itself in the foot as skilfully as we can. We mess up the best deals in the world and then pretend that it is in the best interest of India not to have concluded them in the first place. Part of this is, of course, inherent in the fact that we are a democracy where the best options are always checkmated by political rivalry and the compulsions of posturing. But somehow this no longer seems a good enough reason. We must devise ways and means to move on.

Otherwise, history will remember modern India for having missed every opportunity to empower itself. As a nation. As an economy. As a political and moral presence. We fail not because we do not try hard enough but because every time we are almost there, someone cocks it up. In the name of ideology. Or national pride.

Nehru was the first destroyer. And, in some ways, the worst. He took the economy down the one path it should not have traversed and created, enroute, a vile, venal bureaucracy that became so powerful that modern India has never been able to escape its clutches. His daughter took it one step further by destroying every institution she could lay her hands on. Rajiv was a complete disaster. Unable to cope with the complexity of our politics, he retarded into what he knew best: Making money. So rampant, all-encompassing corruption came centrestage. With people like Quattrochhi and Satish Sharma looting the exchequer. Bofors became a byword for the institutionalisation of graft.

Narasimha Rao carried this further. At the same time, he allowed modern India to escape the clutches of decadent socialism and encouraged, for the first time, the market economy to flourish. Controls were dismantled, not entirely but sufficient for India to find its feet on the global scene. Investments started pouring in. International majors began to look at us as a serious destination for projects and products. The economy moved back from the hands of State-sponsored smugglers and bootleggers to independent corporates ready to play a role in the growth of a new, resurgent India.

But just as we were about to take off came the South Asian crash, Pokhran 2 and a swadeshi Budget full of tired, shopworn cliches.

The Americans should have figured out our compulsions. We have a free press; nothing is ever hidden. They should know what led to Pokhran 2. To swadeshi. They could have seen them for what they were: Posturing. Heroic posturing that was meant to weld the nation together and keep the ruling coalition in power.

Instead, they did exactly the opposite. They misread it as belligerence, as adventurism, as (horror of horrors!) the savage face of Hindutva. After having turned a Nelson's eye to every indiscretion committed by China and Pakistan, the US suddenly found India as the new villain. To be abused, kicked, beaten into submission for daring to dream of joining the nuclear club.

To be subjected to widescale sanctions that would bring us to our knees. China gets away with far more. Behind its pretence of an open economy is a savagely repressive and corrupt regime while Pakistan is one of the most active sponsors of Islamic terrorism. But the Americans are not worried. They are only worried about what democratic India is up to. Pokhran 2 is an excuse. It is not the real reason for India and the US to move apart.

The real reason is that the US is completely insensitive to India's security needs. It has no intention of forcing Pakistan to stop funding and training terrorists. It will not warn China to stop giving nuclear aid to Pakistan. All it wants to do is browbeat India and, in Pokhran 2, it has found the perfect opportunity.

Stupid, na? Here you have one of the world's strongest democracies, which believes in a free society, a strong judiciary, a fearless press. With a 250 million strong middle class steeped in the very liberal traditions that America claims to espouse. And, yet, the US turns a blind eye to it all and backs Communist China and Islamic Pakistan, neither of whom share anything in common with America. They do not believe in democracy. They are not concerned with human rights. Pakistan is run by a tough, repressive military oligarchy and only pretends to be democratic. China does not even bother about that. It is shamelessly totalitarian. It has grabbed Tibet and now lusts for Taiwan. Yet Clinton hits India.

Why? No one knows. No one knows why US foreign policy is so bigoted, so entirely and unnecessarily one-sided. Particularly when middle class India is besotted with all things American. From Coke to Madonna, Murdoch to Jack Welch, Oprah to Helen Hunt. Our economy, our movies, our newspapers, our television, our fashion industry, our music, our books, our management education, our food and consumer habits are all modelled after the Americans. The lifestyle of our rich and famous is derived from them. We have so much in common that it is almost embarrassing. Yet the US chooses to see us as bellicose Hindu fundamentalists.

And we? We are too busy sulking. Instead of explaining to the US that they are being stupid, misinformed, untrusting. That they must compare our human rights record with that of Pakistan and China to figure out who they should trust, who is their natural ally. Instead, we are busy pouring Coke into sewers, raising stupid, rabid, anti-American slogans and falling into the same fifties trap that made the CIA the dirtiest three letter word in Indian politics. What is worse, we are back to kissing the **** of a bankrupt Russia.

The future lies in economic realism. We cannot survive as a free nation unless we behave like one. And we cannot behave like one unless we are a free economy. Foolhardiness is no substitute for strategy. Patriotism is not an answer to questions of hard economics.

India and the US have far too much in common to squabble over stupid issues. We have made our respective points. It is time to now sit down and sort out our relationship. Clinton must climb down from his high horse. India must stop mouthing silly, vapid cliches.

Our foreign currency reserves have slipped by $ 2 billion in the past month. Sanctions worth $ 4 billion are starting to hurt. Our reserves (including gold and SDRs) stand at $ 27,570 million, recording a drop of $ 909 million in one week alone. With external debt rising by Rs 440 billion (on account of rupee depreciation) and the Moody downgrade (which ranks us behind Malaysia and Thailand and a shade ahead of Indonesia) things can only get worse. But no one wants to admit this. Not even the finance minister.

Luckily, we, the people of India and the US are infinitely cleverer than our governments. Our fierce sense of freedom -- born of strong, restless democratic traditions -- can (and will) ensure that we rebuild our rishta once all this political natak is over. Clinton cannot suck up to China for all time and Vajpayee is crazy if he thinks Moscow can bail him out. It is time we understood each other. It is time we shook hands, as natural allies.

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Pritish Nandy