India doesn’t want outsourcing row to hit the roof

New Delhi has decided that the ‘‘bilateral relationship’’ will be the focus of the visit, even if it’s an ‘‘afterthought’’ to the nuclear scandal in Pakistan and its linkage with the search for Osama bin Laden.

If and when Powell raises the outsourcing issue, as he did at the India Today conclave (‘‘the American people will find it less difficult to accept outsourcing if India helps generate more American jobs by supporting trade liberalization in the WTO and further opening its markets to US exports’’), the Indian leadership is likely to show its displeasure by delivering a set of homilies about free trade and market forces.

One firm message is likely to be put out: any quid pro quo on outsourcing, any trade-off in any other area, will be unacceptable to India.

Sources said that though the government was irritated with US double standards on free trade, New Delhi will refrain from any counter-threats. Meanwhile, the irritation quotient in New Delhi has zoomed. US trade representative Robert Zoellick’s remarks on outsourcing last week, took New Delhi’s breath away.

‘‘The Indians,’’ Zoellick said, ‘‘have absolutely no right to complain because they don’t belong to the government procurement code in the WTO which sets obligations for making procurement deals transparent.’’ Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie responded, ‘‘Our imports have grown by 25 per cent…is this not openness?’’

Interestingly, it was newly arrived US ambassador to India David Mulford, who caused quite a stir with his comments. Despite his private assurances to Indian leaders on outsourcing, he publicly described India as one of the most ‘‘closed economies’’.

Clearly, five years after the Pokharan tests, issues like nuclear non-proliferation and missile defence have given way to threats from market securities.