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Journalism of Courage
Former US Senator Larry Pressler today expressed concern over the stability of the Musharraf regime and said the only reason for the Bush Administration to confer the Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status to Pakistan was to give the regime there more stability.
But Pressler, who authored the famous Pressler Amendment that limited nuclear development in Pakistan, said he did not agree with the MMNA decision.
‘‘I was not part of it and I don’t quite agree with the decision. However, I am very worried about the stability of the government there and I suppose that the Bush Administration thought this (granting MNNA status) was the way to give more stability to Pakistan,’’ said Pressler.
As a Republican senator in the US Congress, Pressler was among the first to raise concerns over Pakistan’s nuclear programme, which finally led to the Amendment.
He feels that one of the mistakes of the Clinton Administration was to introduce changes that removed the teeth out of the Amendment. ‘‘I think the Clinton Administration was far too pro-Pakistan. It was only towards the end of his second term did Bill Clinton change his approach towards India. By far, it is the Republicans who have really looked to develop a meaningful relationship with India. And the present Bush Administration has done a lot to transform these ties,’’ said Pressler, who had accompanied Clinton during his March 2000 visit to India.
While refusing to comment on whether the modifications to the Pressler Amendment could be linked to the recent proliferation-related charges against Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan, Pressler said a connection cannot be totally denied.
‘‘Removing the teeth from the Amendment did give Pakistan the chance to develop nuclear weapons and then India had to respond. What happened after that is now history. But yes, the Pressler Amendment was an effort to contain this sort of development,’’ he said.
On the forthcoming US presidential elections, Pressler said the contest was tough and it was difficult to predict a winner at this stage. He, however, said there was little chance that outsourcing to India would stop regardless of the outcome of the election.
‘‘The outsourcing debate has almost died out from what it was at the start of the campaign… A Kerry Administration would probably slow down outsourcing but it will not stop. The Republicans, of course, will favour outsourcing,’’ he said.
Pressler, who is on the board of software major Infosys and is on his way to Bangalore to attend one of its meetings, also plans to meet Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia whom he knows since they studied together at Oxford in the 1960s.
