EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

The new entente with the U.S.

R
Amitabh Mattoo

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015

Going beyond
symbolism
n its 66th Republic Day, during a mighty
parade in the national capital, India showcased woman power with all-women contingents of the three Services for the rst
time. A day earlier, Wing Commander Pooja Thakur
became the rst woman to lead a ceremonial tri-service
guard of honour, which the visiting U.S. President inspected. But when it comes to the overall status of
women in the Indian armed forces, especially in the
Army, all this represents a travesty of gender justice.
Since being inducted into the Army in 1992 under the
Women Special Entry Scheme (they were in even earlier in the Military Nursing Service from 1927 and in the
Medical Officers Cadre from 1943), women Army officers are still denied permanent commission on a par
with men: they have to be content with the short
service commission. On a batch of petitions led in
2003 by women officers demanding an end to the
discriminatory practice, the Delhi High Court in March
2010 granted their just and fair claim for permanent
commission with the singeing words that it was not
some charity being sought but enforcement of their
constitutional rights. While this prompted the Air
Force and the Navy to grant women officers permanent
commission, the Army took a different stand, arguing,
among other things, that the bulk of the armys Junior
Commissioned Officers and other ranks hail from rural
India, who are not yet ready to accept a woman as their
leader in combat situations. In an affidavit led before
the Supreme Court in 2012 while appealing against the
High Court order, the Army added: In theory women
in the army may sound good but in practical terms the
arrangement has not worked well in the Indian Army
and as a concept also our society is not prepared to
accept women in combat role.
As the issue remains in the Supreme Court for more
than four years now, the Army needs to get real, and
persuade itself to go beyond symbolic and cosmetic
steps. It needs to recognise womens capabilities as
many advanced armed forces across the world have
done, even committing them to combat roles and
their right to a full-edged career in the force, on a par
with men. During the 14-year short service commission
tenure they now enjoy, women officers in various corps
are assigned duties similar to those of men officers
without distinction, to all possible eld units with men
officers. If it is the Armys claim that beyond that point
in permanent commission tenure women could be exposed to hostile environments it has cited the
unique nature of responsibility and organisational requirement that the Army Act necessitates that
truly smacks of gender discrimination. The time has
come for the Army to end this iniquitous situation.

obert Blackwill, former Ambassador of the United States and Harvard academic, used to often
recount at his dinner roundtables
in New Delhis Roosevelt House an intriguing
story about how he was persuaded to take up
the job. In 2001, President George W. Bush
called him to his ranch in Texas and said:
Bob, imagine: India, a billion people, a democracy, 150 million Muslims and no Al Qaeda. Wow! More than a decade after
President Bushs rst exclamation, IndiaU.S. relations have truly reached their wow
moment.
President Barack Obamas visit is so obvious a watershed in Indias foreign policy, and
so overwhelming a development, that voices
of dissent are mute or feeble. Not since India
signed the treaty of peace, friendship and
cooperation with the Soviet Union in 1971
has New Delhi aligned itself so closely with a
great power. More important, outside the
Left, both within India and in the U.S. the
consensus across the mainstream of political
opinion favours stronger relations between
the two countries. Anti-Americanism, once
the conventional wisdom of the Indian elite,
seems almost antediluvian today.

Behind the change

The reason for the drastic change in the
geostrategic outlook can be summarised
quickly. The 1971 treaty was a response to the
continuing U.S. tilt towards Pakistan and the
beginnings of a Washington-Beijing entente
(President Richard Nixons then National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, went secretly to Beijing via Islamabad a month before
India signed the treaty with the Soviet
Union). In contrast, in 2015, it is the prospect
of a powerful, belligerent and potentially hegemonic China in the Indo-Pacic region
that is helping to cement the relationship.
While this may seem like a parsimonious
explanation, it is rooted in an understanding
of the manner in which great powers, rising
powers and emerging powers have responded to changes in the balance of power in the
international system since the Peace of
Westphalia in 1648.
Clearly, the pice de rsistance of the Obama visit has been removing the nal hurdles
in the civilian nuclear agreement to pave the
way for its commercialisation, almost a decade after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and President Bush rst issued a joint statement, in July 2005, on civilian nuclear coop-

The Obama visit is so overwhelming a

development that it has hardly evoked dissent.
Not since India signed the peace and friendship
treaty with the Soviet Union has New Delhi
aligned itself so closely with a great power. AntiAmericanism, once the conventional wisdom of
the Indian elite, seems almost antediluvian today

eration. As we know, two sticking points were

holding up an agreement: differences over
liability in case of a nuclear accident, and
over administrative arrangements governing
the transfer of nuclear materials to India.
Consider rst the latter. For more than a
year, the U.S. has refused to accept an Indian
draft agreement that was based on the sound
principle that New Delhi would be accountable only for the totality of nuclear material
supplied to it, and under the safeguards of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Given Indias closed fuel cycle, allowing nuclear material from different countries to be
tracked and audited separately could be unnecessarily intrusive and could undermine
the condentiality of its nuclear programme.
While the Canadians saw reason and accepted Indias draft in 2012, the non-prolifer-

still holding out for tracking and audit of

nuclear material based on national ags.
Hopefully, the deal will pave the way for GE,
Westinghouse and other leading businesses
in the nuclear industry to begin commercial
operations in India.
Similarly, on the issue of nuclear liability,
where American companies were concerned
by the unlimited liability they could face in
case of a nuclear accident under Sections
17(b) and 46 of the Indian Civil Liability for
Nuclear Damage Act of 2010, a compromise
seems to have been found.
New Delhi has agreed to create a publicly
funded insurance pool and the Attorney General of India is likely to issue an explanatory
memorandum on Section 46 which will potentially clarify the limits of tort claims by
accident victims against the suppliers of nu-

The special relationship with the U.S. today, especially the

vision statement, is rooted in New Delhi's apprehensions about
Chinas aggressive peripheral diplomacy.
ation lobby in Washington seemed to have
had the upper hand as the political leadership
seemed reluctant to take a call even though it
was against the letter and spirit of the 123
agreement: the fundamental basis of the civil
nuclear agreement between India and the
U.S.

Nuclear liability issue

The deal has been done only because President Obama has now put his personal weight
behind it, to marginalise those who still see
Indias nuclear programme through the
prism of Washingtons non-proliferation
policies of the 1990s towards New Delhi.
With the U.S. accepting the Canadian model,
it will be easier for India to negotiate with
Japan and Australia, the other two countries

clear reactors. The latter, however, as Indian

officials have said, is still a work in progress.
Given the collective national memory of the
Bhopal gas tragedy, this could still stir a public controversy if the limits are in absolute
terms. Rather, the claims could be linked to
compensations offered contemporaneously
to victims of industrial accidents in the U.S.

The vision statement

No less important is the commitment of
President Obama and his team to support
Indias membership of international export
control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement,
the Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime that will help to further mainstream Indias nuclear programme.

CARTOONSCAPE

The dynamics
of inequality
ccupational and geographic mobility across
the region are bridging income and consumption-related disparities, says the World
Bank report, Addressing Inequality in South
Asia. The ndings accordingly underscore the role of
urbanisation and private sector participation as being
critical to mitigating socio-economic disadvantages.
Inequality should be understood in terms of monetary
and non-monetary dimensions of well-being, contends
the report. The share of the poorest 40 per cent of
households in total consumption shows that inequality
in South Asia is moderate by international standards.
The comparison is valid even though estimates elsewhere are based on income per capita. Signicantly,
but not surprisingly, economic mobility of the recent
decades has proved benecial to the population at
large, cutting across traditional divides and challenging
stereotypes. This nding, if anything, underscores the
positive effects of legal safeguards for the protection of
minorities. Indeed, monetary inequality of enormous
signicance is manifested in Indias highly disproportionate billionaire wealth, amounting to 12 per cent of
gross domestic product in 2012. The ratio is considerably large even compared with other countries at a
similar level of economic development, says the report.
Conversely, non-monetary indices of well-being pertain to opportunities available to people in the early
years, outcomes during adulthood and support systems
through the life-cycle. Thus, although it is not the
poorest region, South Asia accounts for some of the
worst human development outcomes in basic education and health care. Besides the highest rates of infant
and child mortality that prevail in many parts of the
region, more than 50 per cent of poor children below
ve years of age in Bangladesh and Nepal are stunted;
the proportion for India is over 60 per cent. Pervasive
tax avoidance and regressive fuel and electricity subsidies are primarily responsible for the inadequate provisioning of public services. Of no insignicant value is
the non-dogmatic stance the report adopts on a fundamental moral question such as inequality. Drawing
upon inuential academic debates in economics and
philosophy, the study argues that the rewards linked to
hard work and entrepreneurship serve as incentives to
give ones best and enhance overall well-being. It would
be fair to infer that non-monetary inequalities are
arbitrary and potentially more detrimental to economic growth over the long term. To bring such ideas into
the public and political mainstream would enhance the
quality of the debate, and further consolidate contemporary competitive electoral democracies.

CM
YK

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Religious freedom
U.S. President Barack Obamas
statement on the need to uphold
religious freedom has far-reaching
implications (Uphold religious
freedom, Obama urges India,
Jan.28). The BJP governments
programmes such as Make in
India, Smart Cities and Clean
India can succeed only with the
participation of Indian as well as
foreign investors.
G. Stanley Jeyasingh,
Nagercoil

Narendra Modi over the visit. It is

also a passive reminder to Mr. Modi
that religious intolerance was the
reason why he was denied a visa.
The U.S. President has done well in
exposing to the world the sectarian
attitude and philosophy of the BJP
and the right wing.
Thomas George,
Pala, Kerala
Mr. Obamas advice, or remark, is
quite amusing. Is he not aware of
our Sanatana Dharma, which
respects all the religions in the
world, and of our supreme
secularism being followed here?
Has he overlooked the fact that we
have places of worship that cover
many faiths? In fact, India may be
one of the few nations where
minorities enjoy the maximum
freedom with many of their
members making it to high office.
V.S. Ganeshan,
Bengaluru

Mr. Obamas pertinent advice could

not have come at a more
appropriate time. With right-wing
elements bent on dividing the
country in the name of religion, and
other telltale signs of an agenda
(Row over omission of words,
Jan.28) that cannot be dismissed as
mere
oversight,
the
BJP
government needs to come clean on
this issue.
Tharcius S. Fernando, As expected, the media have
Chennai jumped into the fray and
highlighted the remarks. This is my
The speech should be seen as a slap poser to media outlets: where else
in the face of the government, can you nd a country like India
which is trying to introduce an that allows such abundant religious
element of religion into almost freedom? Where were the media
there
were
reverse
every eld using even the slightest when
opportunity. Right-wing groups are conversions, from majority to
clearly attempting to incite minority? As a result of this, the
communal hatred in the country. demography of northeastern India
Mr. Obamas words of caution show is changing. We also know about the
plight of Kashmiri Pandits. As a
that the world is watching.
T. Anand Raj, good host we have to accord respect
Chennai to the President and his comments.
But he must note that he will not be
In his nal speech in India, Mr. allowed to talk about religious
Obama effectively punctured the freedom in West Asia, his next
euphoria of Prime Minister destination after India, and where

Given that similar promises have been made

in the past, it is important that India uses the
goodwill of the Obama visit to ensure that
Washington presses for this to happen as
soon as possible despite the obvious reluctance of some members of these regimes.
The media focus has been on the nuclear
issue yet the U.S.-India Joint Strategic
Vision for the Asia-Pacic and Indian Ocean
Region is no less signicant. It is a major
advance on the early initiatives made during
last Septembers Obama-Modi summit in
Washington. Indeed, given Indias traditional strategic caution, the vision statement
could be even seen as radical by its standards.
Shorn of the homilies, the vision statement
has three signicant features.
The rst is the clear link between economic prosperity and security, and the critical
importance of freedom of the seas in the
region. The statement could not be more
explicit: We affirm the importance of safeguarding maritime security and ensuring
freedom of navigation and over ight
throughout the region, especially in the
South China Sea.
Second is the commitment to the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
and to pursue resolution of territorial and
maritime disputes through all peaceful
means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law.
Third is the agreement to work with other
countries to better respond to diplomatic,
economic and security challenges in the region. The ve-year vision includes strengthening regional dialogues, making trilateral
consultations with third countries in the region more robust, deepening regional integration, strengthening regional forums, and
exploring additional multilateral opportunities for engagement.

China factor
While India has traditionally favoured a
policy of deep engagement with all major
powers, the special relationship with the U.S.
today, especially the vision statement, is
rooted in great apprehensions in New Delhi
about Chinas aggressive peripheral diplomacy, particularly after the intrusions in
Chumar during President Xi Jinpings visit to
India last year. That the new Chinese leadership had abandoned Deng Xiaopings 24
Character Strategy of biding time, hiding its
capacities and not attracting attention has
been clear for some time now, but what is
intriguing is that Beijing has managed to
alienate nearly all its neighbours, except
North Korea and Pakistan, by its malevolence. Not surprisingly, a rising China is a
cause of trepidation in most capitals of the
world today. Will Beijing now introspect and
recalibrate? For it must realise that New Delhis closeness to Washington is also a function of its strategic distance from Beijing.
In late 2005, amidst the negotiations over
the civil nuclear agreement with the U.S., Dr.
Singh, appointed a task force on global strategic developments headed by the doyen of
Indias strategic thinking, K. Subrahmanyam. As a member of the task force, I remember the meetings essentially became a series
of inspiring lectures by Mr. Subrahmanyam
on geopolitics. Mr. Subrahmanyam was an
architect of many of Indias key strategic
decisions, including the policy that led to the
creation of Bangladesh, the Indo-Soviet treaty, as well as the nuclear tests of 1998. But
throughout the meetings, Mr. Subrahmanyam, with a mind as agile as that of a restless
teenage prodigy, would emphasise the importance of arriving at a modus vivendi with
the U.S., the overriding importance of the
nuclear deal, how it was in Washingtons own
interest to support a rising India and how
New Delhi should grab that opportunity. As
the United States and India nally recognise each other and promise to realise each
others potential, the new entente between
the two countries is a tting tribute to the
legacy of Indias modern-day Chanakya, just
days after his 86th birthday.
(Amitabh Mattoo is Professor of
Disarmament and Diplomacy, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
the American First Lady has
apparently stirred up a controversy
by not wearing a headscarf.
Satheesh Kumar R.,
Mangaluru

Issues in focus
The focus of most media articles
during and following the Obama
visit appear to be heavily nuclear
deal-centric and on defence deals
and trade. Unfortunately, there
does not seem to have been any
discussion on renewable energy and
climate change which are far more
important than these issues. Does
India want just nancial help on
the issue of climate change? It must
be noted that the White House has
released a 10-point statement on
climate change and clean energy
resulting from the discussions and
which include these points: the
phasing out of hydrourocarbons; a
$125-million agreement on clean
energy research; enhanced clean
energy research and trade; climate
resilience tools; promotion of
super-efficient off-grid appliances,
and a concluded agreement on a
ve-year MoU on Energy Security,
Clean Energy, and Climate Change
which is to be signed soon. This is by
far the most important issue for
future generations of Indians.
Clarence Maloney,
Kodaikanal

R.K. Laxman
I had an occasion to meet R.K.
Laxman some years ago when the
public sector organisation I was
working in had invited him to meet
its staff. I was to take him around
the huge manufacturing complex
and the township that housed our

employees. Many of us asked him

about his impressions. He quickly
went up to a board, clipped on a
sheet of paper, pulled out a marker
pen and drew the Common Man
holding a test tube in his hand with
a huge cloud of smoke oating over
his head. This was done in just
under a minute. We thought it
depicted pollution, as ours was a
chemical manufacturing complex.
His response was just a smile!
Probably that was his singular
impression, we thought. But there
was more to follow. The next day, a
leading daily published this
cartoon, maybe his overall
impression about PSUs. It depicted
an official telling someone, perhaps
a visiting VIP, with the Common
Man looking on: These are
employee quarters, thats the
school, thats the hospital, thats our
recreation club and now we are
waiting for funds for the project to
start. We were taken aback by how
sharp the observation was and how
great truths often lie hidden
beneath humour, without being
hurtful or obscene.
R.K. Laxman was one in a million.
M. Shankar,
Chennai
R.K. Laxman held a mirror unto
society. I am reminded of his line,
Crows are so good-looking, so
intelligent. Where will I nd
characters like that in politics?
Though
he
often
targeted
politicians in his cartoons, he was
also known to win over the same
leaders who admired his talent. He
embodied the hopes, aspirations
and troubles of Indians for over
half-a-century, and allowed India to

laugh and think. He lives on in the

Common Man.
A. Myilsami,
Coimbatore
Two of his cartoons come to mind.
In the 1990s, when Kolkata was
facing an acute power supply crisis,
he came up with a cartoon depicting
an executive at the airport checking
in his suitcase and carrying a
hurricane lantern as hand baggage.
The second showed A.B. Vajpayee,
the then Foreign Minister who
often went abroad, with a briefcase
in one hand and an aircraft model in
the other. The Common Man was
there, looking on totally amused.
S.V. Ramakrishnan,
Chennai

This is no toilet
The Supreme Court has brought out
the realities of toilets in
government schools in Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana (Toilet in
structure not a toilet in reality: SC,
Jan.28). How can the authorities
just spend some money in
constructing the structure without
going into its actual functioning? It
clearly seems to be a case of
collusion between the contractors
and the officials concerned. It is
common to nd rest rooms often
being used as garbage receptacles.
People also do not know how to
keep a toilet clean after use. School
heads in the region have often said
that there is apathy towards the
condition of rest rooms and that
things can be turned around if every
student contributes Rs.10 a month
towards upkeep.
J.P. Reddy,
Nalgonda
ND-ND