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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Rajdeep Sardesai

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Keywords: Pakistan, India

In the 60th year of Indian and Pakistani independence, CNN-IBN brings you the first-ever joint Indo-Pak opinion poll, in collaboration with The Indian Express and Pakistan’s Dawn News. CSDS conducted the poll in India while AC Nielsen in Pakistan. Over 1,000 Pakistanis in 10 major cities of Pakistan, and over 2,000 Indians in 20 major cities here, participated in the poll.

Is America a friend of India and/or Pakistan? Do Indians care, or even know about the much-touted Indo-US nuclear deal? What is the popular perception of America among young Pakistanis? While the CNN-IBN-Indian Express-Dawn News survey tried finding answers to some of those questions, the State of the Nation debate discussed the startling findings.

The show conducted by Vidya Shankar Aiyar saw an eminent panel discussing the various issues related to US’ role in the region. The panelists were: Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma; Senior Editor, Indian Express, Mini Kapoor; Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Program, Stephen Cohen; columnist Praful Bidwai and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri.

Fission over N-deal

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended the Indo-US nuclear deal in Parliament on Monday, the State of the Nation survey threw up some starling figures.

Twenty per cent of informed Indians surveyed supported the deal and 10 per cent were downright against it. But support for the deal also comes from the 12 per cent pollsters who said they trusted Government with knowing the best. Nine per cent of those surveyed had no opinion.

However, a staggering 49 per cent of those surveyed had not heard of the deal ever!

With these findings it’s clear that the highly technical Indo-US nuclear deal has not found many Indians interested. So, has the UPA Government failed to take what perhaps is its most significant achievement to the masses?

MOS-External Affairs Anand Sharma indicated it was more about being in the know of things than publicity. “Those who know what is in interest of India endorse the Government’s initiative in ensuring that the nuclear apartheid against India ends,” he said.

According to Sharma India could not be a part of the 21st century by existing in isolation and, therefore, the deal assumed significance.