Robert Hathaway, executive director of the Asia program at Woodrow Wilson Center, diplomatic historian and veteran Capitol Hill staffer who helped fashion United States policies toward Asia for more than a dozen years, addressed interns from the Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) last month. Hathaway gave an honest, clear and contemporary analysis of Indo-U.S. relations, the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, the Indian-American community and the Kashmir issue.

Washington : Bilateral ties between the United States and India has undergone a remarkable sea-change since the end of the cold war, but have not yet reached a level of maturity whereby the two nations could be called “natural allies,” said Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a reputed think tank.

Hathaway, diplomatic historian and veteran Capitol Hill staffer who has helped fashion U.S. Congress policies toward Asia for more than a dozen years, was addressing interns of the Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) last month.

IACPA SUMMER SPEAKERS SERIES

After 9/11, India was the first nation to support the U.S. in its efforts to fight terrorism. However, Washington’s reliance on Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, gave rise to a feeling in India that the U.S. had tilted toward Islamabad. The basic difference here was that while the U.S. considered Pakistan as part of the solution to the war on terrorism, India on the other hand believed that “Pakistan is part of the problem, not the solution.”

He gave a very honest, clear and contemporary analysis of India-U.S. relations, the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, the Indian-American community and the Kashmir issue. India-U.S. relations except for the past few years, has been a “very difficult relationship for most of the past 55 years,” Hathaway said, adding that several strides taken by the two sides has, however, brought them together, smoothening some of the creases in the ties. But the terms “natural allies,” or the world’s largest democracy and the oldest democracy to describe India and the U.S. is just “rhetoric,” which should not be taken seriously as they do not truly reflect the correct nature of the relationship, he said.

Saying that he tends to be “cautious about the India-U.S. relations,” Hathaway, who served as press secretary for former Congressman Stephen Solarz, New York Democrat, said that in the long run, he was, however, “optimistic about the relationship” as the signs were all there for better cooperation and friendship.

First of all turning to what he called the stumbling blocks in the Indo-US relations Hathaway said top on the list was Iraq. If a war against Iraq is waged by the U.S., India “will find the position very very difficult to support. It will raise doubts about how natural allies we are,” Hathaway remarked.

The second on the list was Pakistan. After 9/11, India was the first nation to support the U.S. in its efforts to fight terrorism. However, Washington’s reliance on Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, gave rise to a feeling in India that the U.S. had tilted toward Islamabad. The basic difference here was that while the U.S. considered Pakistan as part of the solution to the war on terrorism, India on the other hand believed that “Pakistan is part of the problem, not the solution,” he said.

The Bush administration’s decision to sell military aircraft to Pakistan also did not go well with the Indians who resent any closer military cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan. Third, was economic relations which has become stagnant in recent times. Not much investment is going to India, nor have exports increased in any significant way. “So India is only a bit player in our economic relations.” However, he expressed the optimism that it may not remain the same in the future, with the economy improving in both countries.

Talking about the positive side of the India-U.S. relations, Hathaway said there is a conscious effort and a growing consensus in both the countries to have a normal, good and sound bilateral ties. And that it is in U.S. interest to cultivate such a relationship.

Just 13 years ago, India was viewed widely by the Americans as a “puppet, lackey or client of Soviet Russia and that it associated with the forces of evil.” However, all that has changed dramatically in recent years, especially during former president Bill Clinton’s administration. The main reason for the turnaround was India’s economic reforms in 1991 and successive years. It got the business community in this country to get interested in India.

The second factor has been the large and active community of nonresident Indians and Indian-Americans who have given India a new prominence in U.S. life and an effective lobby in the U.S. Congress. The community now has a clout that was not seen 10 years ago, he said. The Indian-American community exercises a political clout commensurate with its numbers, income and education, he added.

Although Sept. 11 has influenced U.S. policy in the short-to-medium term, in all likelihood, the overall agenda of U.S. in South Asia will see some changes, principally, a heightened American interest in peacemaking and Kashmir, and in Pakistan’s stability. Moreover, the U.S. engagement in South Asia, clearly, is likely to last for a number of years, he said. On Kashmir, he said it continues to be a sore point between India and Pakistan and will remain so as long as it stays unresolved.

In this context he said India should take into account the genuine and legitimate grievances of the Muslims living there and should give a measure of political autonomy to the state if things were to improve and to make Pakistan back down.

He also wanted New Delhi to look into the alleged human rights abuses in the valley. During the brief question-and-answer session that followed the interns asked precise and pointed questions, to which Hathaway gave equally interesting answers.

To a question on the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, Hathaway said its members should be held accountable and not allowed to be mere spectators. More often than not, Hathaway said, the India Caucus functions as a “cheer-leader” rather than a serious instrument of interest in the promotion of India-U.S. relations.