Job for a job

This newspaper is proud to have pushed for the India-US civilian nuclear agreement,a landmark deal that we believe will change the entire paradigm of Indian foreign policy. Like the first financial reforms of 1991,the first attempt to realign India’s engagement with the world has been discussed and dissected,but is now reality and,thankfully,irreversible in terms of the shift in mindset it has ushered in.

That doesn’t explain the burst of clientelism that the Indian state’s functionaries seem to have decided to indulge in. The most unacceptable aspect of this,for example,was on display during Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon’s recent visit to the United States: his claim that the question of the US’s creeping protectionism,particularly towards the H1-B visa programme,could not even be raised bilaterally because it was a “sovereign function” of the US. Indeed. But the competitiveness of our companies and the movement of our people is also a core issue for India. And that’s what diplomacy is about,isn’t it? Raising our issues that both countries care about? Is India’s senior-most diplomat feeling so indebted to the US that he doesn’t feel it’s worth talking about anyway?

Because it couldn’t be about powerlessness. Nobody wants a trade war,and nobody should. But if the US government thinks that “its own money” mustn’t suffer “leakage” to other economies in the course of the stimulus package and so will close off H1-B employment and put in “Buy American” clauses,it shouldn’t also think that it is the only government with the power to do so. On Monday,the $2 billion sale of maritime jets to the Indian Navy was cleared by the US administration — something that was needed to keep troubled airplane giant Boeing’s books looking good. Boeing,

General Electric,McDonnell-Douglas and General Dynamics would soon run to their contacts in Congress and the White House if India’s government began to look elsewhere. Here’s the rub: India’s government has levers to apply. India’s administrators better start applying them. The nuclear deal was in this country’s interest,which is why it was a good thing. Just because it was in the US’s interest as well wasn’t a reason to oppose it. But everything in the US’s interest isn’t in ours — something our establishment needs to keep continually in mind.