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Journalism of Courage
The opposition of the Left parties to the 8220;new framework8221; on Indo-US defence cooperation was expected. Their fury was not. In its ideological opposition to any engagement with the US, the Left was not going to let facts come in the way. If a similar agreement were to be signed with Russia or China, the Left would have hailed it as a triumph for anti-imperialist forces. The Left criticism that the framework 8220;embeds8221; India in US strategy towards Asia is similar to the right-wing attack on the Indo-Soviet Treaty of 1971. It was seen as a departure from non-alignment that made Delhi a 8220;lackey of Moscow8221;. In comparison to the 1971 defence treaty with Moscow, the new defence framework with the US is limited in its political objectives and identifies a mutually beneficial agenda for cooperative security.
In preventing much needed cooperation between India and the US, the Left would be liable to the charge of diminishing Delhi into a camp follower of Beijing. For all its emphasis on creating a multipolar world, the Left does not seem interested in a multipolar Asia. If India can now have a 8220;strategic partnership8221; with China, which in the past has provided nuclear weapons and missiles to Pakistan, where is the problem in defence cooperation with the US? The Manmohan Singh government, sensitive to the tectonic change in Asian geopolitics amidst the dramatic rise of China, is rightly pursuing simultaneous strategic engagement with both Beijing and Washington. India is too big to fit into the pocket of either.
