Fall from grace for Indian scientists

From such enthusiastic scouting and touting to shooing and booing out Indian scientists from the United States has been a short, swift and sudden journey. As Indian scholars in the US pack their bags to return home and scientists and researchers put away their passport and visaapplications to visit the US — on the advise of both the Indian and US governments — ties between the two countries on the learning front has hit a nadir following India’s nuclear test in May.

There’s a bad joke doing the rounds in the corridors of Indian science: They are saying things are “Mad in USA.”

Really. Across the science and technology spectrum, Indian scholars feel they are getting a bum rap from a mean-spirited Clinton administration that could end up scalding the United States as much as it deprives Indian scientists of valuable exposure.

Although the Indian Government has quietly advised the scientific community not to be provoked by US actions and to lie low, it is not lost on the powers-that-be that India provides far more to the US in terms of skilled manpower than Washington would like to acknowledge: Some 20,000 Indian software engineers have travelled to the US this year alone, many of them to fix the Y2K — the Year 2000 — problem. Estimates of Indian scientists, engineers,doctors and teachers in the US range from 250,000 to 400,000.

“We can retaliate too. But that would be showing the same lack of grace,” a top Bangalore-based scientist said in an interview reviewing Indo-US scientific ties spanning half a century.

It’s not that India and the US have not had problems. The story goes that when the US put its foot down on Russia supplying cryogenic engines to India in 1992-1993, Indian space scientists were similarly marked. In fact, after Russia invoked the force majeure to renege on a deal to supply two engines and technology to India under pressure from the US, Washington insisted that the 15 Indian scientists who were in Russia pack up too. Weak-kneed and beholden to the US, Moscow asked the Indian scientists — some of whom had just rented apartments, to scram — which they promptly did.

“We could have gone to the World Court and litigated. But we had too much pride,” a scientist involved in that episode said (As it turned out, the Russians finally sold fivecryogenic engines but no technology; and ISRO is figuring things out on its own — they don’t mind one bit even if it takes a little longer).

The same sense of dignity and self-respect marks the reaction of the Indian scientific community now to what Indian scholars say is Washington’s crude and juvenile reaction in expelling Indian scientists. In many organisations like ISRO, IISC and defence establishments in Bombay and Bangalore, the word has gone out that scholars should hold their horses — or passports. “There is no need to get excited. We should approach things calmly. This storm will blow over,” says Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman of India’s space program. Across the community, there is a feeling that India should react with maturity, restraint and good cheer.

That cheerful restraint was very much in evidence in the aftermath of the cryogenic episode. Some months later, when India’s then space chief U R Rao met Vice-President Al Gore (the hatchet man for putting the screws on Russians), the veeptold him Washington did not trust ISRO because many of its scientists have moved over to India’s defence establishment DRDO.

“A lot of out scientists also work in NASA, Mr Vice-President…” Rao told him with a quiet smile.

Space is just one area where the US views Indian developments with extreme suspicion. Atomic energy is the other marked area. Ironically though, it was the United States that helped kick-start Indian programs in both areas. Washington’s Atoms for Peace program cranked up India’s first nuclear reactors while the US helped launch India’s space program with free sounding rockets in 1963.

But the moment India started eyeing military applications in rocket science in the seventies and conducted the first nuclear test in Pokharan, the leg up became a thumbs down.

Despite the suspicion and the paranoia, Indian scientists say they still have a constructive and fruitful partnership with their American counterparts. Institutional relationships are also strong. “It’s hardly a secret thatpoliticians lack vision or foresight and the Clinton administration is proving it now,” said one scientist, predicting that it won’t be long before the storm blows over. India’s innate scientific strength and integrity would see to it. “We won’t make the same mistake as our politicians,” he said with a chuckle.