NEW DELHI, Aug 17: Prime Minister I K Gujral will be attending the 52nd session of the United Nations on September 29 and 30, where he will place India's viewpoint on the expansion of the world body before its General Assembly.Aware that his first visit to the US will be subject to detailed scrutiny, Gujral, extraordinarily sensitive about protocol and position, is said to have made clear that he will only go to Washington if a meeting with US president Clinton comes through.This is not the first time that Gujral has insisted on playing by the rules of protocol: in April, as External Affairs Minister, he cancelled a visit to the US because Albright did not have time to give his delegation dinner.But Gujral's insistence on parity is only an indicator of the uneasy bilateral relationship between the two countries. A section of people in government strongly feel that the US is being double-handed in its dealings with Indiaoffering dialogue on nuclear and strategic issues on the one hand and rudely refusing to accept an Indian intelligence officer posting in Washington on the other.Gujral's visit is thus far limited to New York, where he is expected to state that an expansion of the Council can only be meaningful if it is ``non-discriminatory'' and ``representative'' of the entire world.The MEA is engaged in an exhaustive exercise on whether to stake claim to permanent membership, considering that any such move will have to take the US attitude into account.US officials have said their support for India in the Security Council will only come after New Delhi makes clear what it intends to do in the Council. ``Will India block issues like the way it did with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. If so, then our support may be difficult,'' one source has said.
