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Journalism of Courage
The dawn was progressing into a high noon. The new brotherhood, the Hindi-Yankee bhai bhai, was celebrated as a brand new chapter in the post-Cold War reality in the Indian subcontinent. The historically, and stupidly, inherited anti-Americanism was melting like the snows of Kargil in the heat of post-Pokharan wisdom. The little war with the reckless neighbour only brought the line of Indian restraint into international focus. That was some kind of statesmanship, some national maturity, containment without destruction 8212; the unduly provoked but remarkably cool India was at the receiving end of global appreciation. It was so heartening an experience for the Indian war managers to see the President of the United States nodding in approval. You8217;re right, said Bill Clinton, and they8217;re wrong. What a defining moment. This time he or anybody from the West didn8217;t say they were right. A tectonic shift in American policy, a new covenant was inaugurated 8212; like the deprived statelets of history, India danced onfour legs. Who doesn8217;t like to be loved by the US? The US is such a wonderful thing as long as the US loves you. Nuclear India won the war without nuclearising the war. More important, India won the US. It was such a wonderful feeling.
But this America is a crazy country. When everything was going fine, Clinton said, hey, hang on, what the hell is going on over there in the name of that Nuclear Doctrine? As if Clinton doesn8217;t know what his new friend8217;s nuclear doctrine is all about. Naturally, New Delhi thought Washington would have no problems with the doctrine. New Delhi thought the friendship was nuclear-proof. New Delhi seems to have missed the vital point: America is a crazy country because the American president likes his country more than he likes India or any other friend. It was rather naive, almost childish, of India to get overexcited in the beginning. Every American friendship is a celebration of not some bilateral brotherhood but an extension of American self-interest. Nothing wrong with that.It is worth emulating. Bill Clinton, the millennial president, certainly wants to win friends 8212; fallible friends 8212; and influence nations. His concept of nuclear disarmament and nuclear preservation is quite different from the wannabe nuclearists8217; rhetoric on deterrence and deployment. After all, the doctrine itself is not radiation-free, it has evoked only the right international response. But the US 8230; New Delhi is still surprised over the reaction.
