Why Did We Fall for America's Trap?

The arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai during Hillary Clinton’s trip to India seemed like something out of a drama. Fai heads the Kashmiri American Council in Washington. The American police claim that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency secretly gave him 200 million rupees, but who doesn’t know that every American administration has blessed this Kashmiri flag-waving man? Every American president has wished the Council well, and dozens of Republican and Democratic senators have taken part in its meetings. They didn’t interfere with the Council to show that they are now siding with India regarding the Kashmir issue. The main reason for the arrest might be that the U.S. wanted to scare the Pakistani government, which is pestering CIA agents on its turf. India should therefore not be needlessly happy.

Yes, Pakistan has been quite humiliated on the occasion of Clinton’s trip to India. The depth of the relationship between America, which has claimed to want to have a dialogue about military with India, and the ISI has also been revealed. It seems that Clinton did not come to India to talk about the military but rather to serve America’s economic interests. Just recently, India removed American ships costing billions from its shopping list. Furthermore, the nuclear deal, in which the U.S. wants to fill India up to the neck with nuclear plants, has been left undecided because the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has set up a new obstacle. The NSG decided in a recent meeting that not a single group member would give technology or equipment that could be used in making a nuclear bomb to any country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Clinton very blatantly did not address this issue. The question about nuclear compensation has become a bone in the throat as well.

There is an extreme discrepancy between the laws of the Indian Parliament and the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Clinton wanted India to accept these rules and soften the conditions of remuneration, but she wasn’t successful. She also “ignored” the appeal of our foreign minister for India to be made a member of the four nuclear export control regimes (NSG, Missile Technology Control Regime, Australian Group and Wassenaar Arrangement). If the assurances given during the India–U.S. deal were true, then why the faltering in its execution? Clinton came to India with the excuse that she would engage in a military dialogue with India. Has she? At a press conference in Delhi and during her own speech in Chennai, she gave a barrage of instructions — India, do this; India, do that.

India knows what it has to do. The real question is if America understands what India wants to do. Why did India bash China at America’s provocation? Just consider the case with Pakistan. When any American leader comes to India, they praise India, and when they go to Pakistan, they praise Pakistan. It was better during the era of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Nixon when the lines of disagreement were clearly drawn. India was non-aligned but close to the Soviet Union, while Pakistan was a member of the American military coalition and had become the watchdog for American interests in South Asia. In those days America oil-massaging of Pakistan’s sore muscles was understandable, but what’s America’s motivation now? For whatever reason, America continues to butter up Pakistan.

This has all happened since the Osama incident. It has been clearly stated in the reports of American intelligence agencies that the Pakistani government and army are the biggest shelters of terrorism. So how can India believe the U.S. and bash China? It’s at this point of the story that Fai’s arrest seems like a drama. America has only done this to straighten up Pakistan, and there can be no importance in this for India.