As Al Gore and George W. Bush enter the final lap of a gruelling presidential race, not just the US but the world awaits the verdict with ...
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As Al Gore and George W. Bush enter the final lap of a gruelling presidential race, not just the US but the world awaits the verdict with keen interest. Inevitable this, given the unipolar nature of global politics, and the USA8217;s preeminent role in it. The candidate the US electorate votes into power come November 7 will determine more than purely domestic issues like tax policies or whether pensioners in Miami get a better deal in healthcare insurance. It could redraw the world map and redefine the way the world does business together. Already academics and foreign policy wonks in Beijing, Bucharest and Bonn are at work, weighing the pros and cons of having a spanking new dispensation or one that represents some degree of continuity with Bill Clinton8217;s.
India has been extremely careful not to express a view on its preferred candidate and Prime Minister Vajpayee took great pains to convey this during his US trip in September. There was that telephone exchange with Bush junior which, while it may not have quite touched the levels of warmth attained at the lunch Vice President Al Gore threw for the Indian prime ministerial delegation, nevertheless served as a reminder. India would not like to foreclose its options by appearing to favour one candidate or the other. One of the abiding ironies about the new warmth in Indo-US relations is that it came about during the dying moments of the Clinton presidency. India is, therefore, seeking continuity and progress in these ties, no matter whether it is the Democrat or the Republican who makes it to the White House. There is, however, no getting away from the fact that each candidate has a world view which has implications for this country. So whom should we vote for?
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For the person of Indian origin resident in the United States, Gore must seem the more suitable boy, given that his natural constituency is the middle-income professional. Also his choice of Joseph Lieberman, from the minority Jewish community, as a running mate is bound to be reassuring for other minority communities in the US. As for the mother country, it too should have no problems with Al Gore, seeing that he was one of the principalarchitects of the paradigm shift that Indo-US relations witnessed in the late 1990s. However, there are those who argue that a Gore administration will be just as diligent as the Clinton one is in pursuing a non-proliferation agenda on the sub-continent. The Republicans, in contrast, not having much purchase in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT themselves, may not be terribly interested in getting India to sign the treaty. Which, however, need not be much of an advantage for India, seeing the emerging consensus on the CTBT at home and the fact that it had proved to be a useful bargaining counter in negotiations with the US. The Chinese are certainly not looking forward to a Bush administration, fearing that it would dispense with the 8220;strategic partnership8221; approach that Clinton brought to his relations with them. Bush8217;s hard talk about going ahead with the stalled missile defence system has Beijing worried. Some may see a window of opportunity for India in this potential reversal to a Cold Warsituation between the two global giants, but such a development would also bring security tensions in its wake. These are fluid times indeed for Indo-US relations.
