US and us: India, Pak united in state of doubt

YANKEE DOODLING? Experts debate India-Pak-US ties with regard to America’s 'war on terror' and the N-deal.

          

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Sharma also said he wasn’t too worried about the findings of the survey as the sample size was too small. “In a country of a billion people, if 2,000 people feel a certain way, the survey – with due respect to agencies concerned – will not throw up correct figures,” he said.

However, Mini Kapoor of the Indian Express couldn’t agree less with Sharma. She reasoned that while Indians, in general, were very curious about Indo-US relationship, it was surprising as to why the nuclear deal wasn’t scoring high in terms of popularity.

Sharma countered Kapoor’s point and said the question was not about the deal being popular. It was about the two nations arriving at a consensus despite US laws being strict about not having a deal with a country that had conducted nuclear tests. “That’s why we were talking to US to get the deal through,” he said.

The oft-repeated critique of the Government – from BJP and to a certain extent the Left allies – has been using Indo-US deal for electoral politics. However, Sharma rubbished the charge. “It’s the highest insult to institutional democracy if a PM is not allowed to make a suo motu statement,” he said referring to the furor in Parliament over PM’s speech.

But just why should the Left oppose the deal? What’s the rationale behind it? Columnist Praful Bidwai said the larger question was why a large section of MPs were opposed to the deal. “Many see this as India’s political embrace of Washington. They feel, wrongly, that this will cap India’s arsenal,” he said.

While India – or at least the UPA Government – was reveling in the achievement of having cracked the deal, Pakistan was conspicuous by its sulking. In fact, the country even made its displeasure publicly known on more than one occasion.

US is biased, says Pak

Kasuri seemed to echo the larger Pakistani sentiment and accused US of an India bias. “We have told US that there’s a need for a criteria-based approach. If you ask Pakistanis, they’d say US is not being even-handed,” he said.

Kasuri said Pakistan would continue to talk to US about the issue, keeping in mind that nuclear parity has brought peace to the south-Asian region. “We will continue to press our case and build nuclear reactors,” he said.

He also made clear that, unlike India, Pakistan was not interested in reusing the old fuel and will instead push for a fresh deal.

But just how possible is that? Will Pakistan’s pipe-dream ever get fulfilled? Researcher Stephen Cohen clarified why Pakistan lost out in the first place.

“In the long term Pakistan may be eligible for some kind of a similar deal. But in short term, Pakistan is dealing with China. So while it qualified the criteria-based approach, this was something US couldn’t deal with. Politics, more than anything else, kept Pakistan out of this arrangement,” Cohen said, adding that if Pakistan could be considered, US will be pressured into considering Israel by the same standards.

The war on terror: US and them

Another predominant issue surrounding the India-Pak-US ties is terrorism and America’s “war on terror.” The popular sentiment in India and Pakistan seems to be that US uses the phrase to reaffirm its hegemony over the world. While 84 per cent Indians were of this view, 78 per cent Pakistanis also agreed.