A date with Bill

It is the prologue: Lawrence H. Summers in New Delhi. The US treasury secretary has mentioned no date for the big event. But it will be ...

It is the prologue: Lawrence H. Summers in New Delhi. The US treasury secretary has mentioned no date for the big event. But it will be 8220;sooner than later8221;, and the Big Man is 8220;looking forward to visiting India.8221; Sooner the better, Sir that is apparently the host8217;s mood. Come soon, avoid Pakistan, lift post-Pokharan sanctions, be here in a happier atmosphere, let it be an history-worthy Hindi-Yankee bhai bhai extravaganza.

It can happen, for something good is bound to come out of the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott talks. It looks they are rather serious about an outcome. The treasury secretary didn8217;t say anything less than diplomatic. The only certainty is: He is coming. Well, it is a bit too much to expect so many solutions so soon. Actually, there are not unassailable disagreements between the host and the guest. Sanctions are not going to be eternal, and of CTBT, India cannot afford to be eternally inflexible.

For, nuclear India cannot go on behaving like a nation which has only aspirations, no confidence. In short, things are okay between New Delhi and Washington. Still, why does New Delhi sound unreasonable?

There is no point in being unreasonable, really. India wants President Bill Clinton to come to India, right? If India doesn8217;t want him here on his own terms, the only thing it can do is to deny him a visa. India is not going to do that. We are a very hospitable nation. But India has missed the point. The President of the United States of America doesn8217;t pay a visit to some country on the host8217;s terms. And this President travels abroad not to humour the visited country, his mission is 8212; has been 8212; to humour himself in the backdrop of history.

A handshake, a signature, a prime-time photo-op 8212; and it has happened in the case of Clinton of the world. Unarguably the smartest politician of his generation, Clinton has played the role of global peacemaker-in-chief quite admirably. It may be rogue Bill at home, an efficient one, certainly, but President Clinton is an altogether different story beyond America. From the Middle East to the Balkans to Ireland, the script of a workable peace has been written by the peace merchant from Washington. Then what is the Clinton script for South Asia?

He would like to have one on the eve of his retirement. A nuclear-free South Asia is an impossibility, the best Washington can expect is a nuclear-responsible South Asia. A thaw in Indo-Pak relations is rather unrealistic, thanks to the mutually desirable existence of the bogeyman. So what8217;s the American option? Deal with them separately. The General in Islamabad is not all that unmanageable, Washington knows that. High morality and politically meaningless idealism have little premium in today8217;s world, and Washington is good at achieving a perfect harmony between morality and national interest. And it is national interest that makes New Delhi a worthwhile friend in South Asia.

The market, democracy, the threat of Islamic terror 8212; India and the US have better reasons to be receptive to each other. The US seems to be aware of this reality. Even if the President is coming for his own Presidential interest, India can make an effort to turn the event into an expression of its own national interest. Don8217;t expect Bill Clinton to change the script for someone else8217;s sake.