Expulsion drama

Washington has proved it again: while the rest of the world accustoms itself to a new world order, the globocop that believes itself to be its true originator and chief monitor is yet to grow up. First, the US denied a visa to R. Chidambaram, chief of the Atomic Energy Commission. Now, it has told seven Indian scientists working in the US to skedaddle. Almost 70 more are about to get their marching orders. It feels a bit like the Sixties, when scientists from either side of the Iron Curtain working in defence-related areas were kept scrupulously apart by their respective governments. They were screened before being sent for international conferences and constantly dogged by minders from the local embassy while they were there. Today, such paranoia seems ludicrous. As ridiculous as it would be for India to deny visas to any US citizen involved, however tangentially, with the development and marketing of Texmati rice. It is universally acknowledged that science 8212; especially applied science 8212; is a commonresource of the human race and should not be divided by political demarcations. The world has matured in its outlook. It is a pity that the US languishes in a state of retardation, happy to use the petty, superannuated methods of a shameful past to deal with present-day realities.

The oddest aspect of Washington8217;s action is that it affects only government-aided projects. If the idea is to protect defence secrets, this would appear to be the least intelligent way of going about it. This year, the US government increased the quota of information technology workers from India to deal with shortages in skilled manpower. True, some of these Indians headed for the US will only be scripting video games in Silicon Valley. But surely a certain number of them will be working for Rockwell or Marconi. In other words, they will be working in the same facilities as people who make missile guidance systems or communications scramblers. And anyone working on software for the banking industry will be privy to encryptiontechniques which are classified as defence secrets and cannot be exported to India. Will Washington then start throwing these technologists out? Or will it demurely accede to the demands of the industry, as it did to the agricultural lobby in the case of economic sanctions? Obviously, it will backpedal wildly. The crackdown on scientists is not to be taken seriously. It is just the US government playing to the gallery, parading its very questionable values in a highly visible but completely irrelevant manner.

Washington should apply what it is pleased to call its collective mind to the nuclear issue. It should try to come to terms with India8217;s position, not work at cross-purposes with its own emissaries. The expulsion of the Indian scientists comes scant days after Strobe Talbott and Jaswant Singh started a process of discussion that held forth some promise. Especially, the US should take care to avoid forms of action that enjoy no relevance or dignity in the present day, though they may have beenacceptable in the past. The decision to expel Indian scientists is so utterly puerile that it does not even attract censure. Only derision would be a proper response to it.