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Reject the American fatwa

In publicly warning India, on Republic Day eve, to vote against Iran or else, United States Ambassador David Mulford has outrageously crossed the line of diplomatic propriety, inviting condemnation from political players ranging from the Left to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But he has also done India a service by letting the cat out of the bag, if it was ever fully in. In his interview to the Press Trust of India, he has spotlighted the pitiful terms of the bargain struck by the Manmohan Singh Government with Washington under the signboard of civilian nuclear cooperation. Who can, after Mr. Mulford's egregious forthcomingness, doubt that the bargain requires India to behave like a marionette — forced at every turn of major international events to go against its own national instincts and interests for fear of offending Washington? Today it is a fatwa on Iran, tomorrow it will be a diktat on India's plan to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities, which Mr. Mulford has found to fall short of "minimum standards." He did issue a late night "clarification" on Wednesday claiming his remarks on India and Iran had been "taken out of context." But the verbatim transcript of the relevant portion of the interview circulated by the U.S. embassy (see text on the op-ed page) makes matters worse. The U.S. Ambassador is on record that "we have passed on [an observation]... that if they decide that they don't want to vote for this, our view is that the effect on members of Congress with regard to this civil nuclear initiative will be devastating... the initiative will die in the Congress."

If this is not a threat passed on to India to abandon any idea of voting independently on the Iran nuclear issue, what is? Last week, the Manmohan Singh Government came out fists flailing against Iran for an indirect statement against India on the subject of American nuclear double standards. By contrast, the initial official reaction to Mr. Mulford's incendiary remarks was to play down the issue by rejecting "categorically... any attempt to link [India's position on the Iran issue at the International Atomic Energy Agency] to the proposed Indo-U.S. agreement on civil nuclear energy cooperation." In September, the United Progressive Alliance Government allowed itself to be intimidated into voting against Iran at the meeting of the Board of Governors of the IAEA. During the run-up to the crucial Board meeting of February 2, it is refusing to come clean on how it will vote on a resolution that could take the dispute to the United Nations Security Council. It is also unwilling to take the Indian people into confidence on the nuclear separation plan presented to the U.S. in December. If the Manmohan Singh Government lets the country down a second time by dishonouring its stated stand that the Iran issue must be resolved within the confines of the IAEA, it will be responsible for a political crisis it might not be able to survive.

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