The Hindu : Misleading the people

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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

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Misleading the people

By Prakash Karat

The Vajpayee Government has been secretly negotiating with the Bush administration and misleading the people... Participation of Indian troops in the subjugation and re-colonisation of Iraq will spell the end of an independent foreign policy.

THE PRIME Minister is expected to take a decision on whether or not to send Indian troops to Iraq as requested by the U.S. administration. The NDA meeting authorised him to take the decision, presumably after his return from China. All reports show that the Government is keen to send a contingent of the Indian Army to American-occupied Iraq. This is so despite the objection of all the Opposition political parties and a unanimous resolution of Parliament calling for the withdrawal of the American and British troops from Iraq.

Enough compelling arguments have been made why Indian troops should not be sent to occupied Iraq. Here, the focus is on how the BJP-led Government tried to prepare the ground for sending troops in a clandestine fashion. Finding it difficult to justify such a decision once the matter became public, the Government is now engaged in finding a pretext to commit troops to Iraq.

The issue raises disturbing questions about the sincerity of the Government. The Vajpayee Government has been secretly negotiating with the Bush administration and misleading the people. Their evasive manoeuvres have involved outright falsehoods to camouflage what appears to be a commitment made to the Americans much before the matter became public.

A careful analysis of the events reveals that the Bush administration made its first approach as early as the first week of May. Formally, the matter was taken up when Richard Armitage, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, visited India and met all the top Government leaders, including the Prime Minister. In fact, this was one of the main issues on the agenda for talks — not just Indo-Pakistan relations. Yet, both the Indian and American sides denied that Americans made any request to send Indian troops to Iraq. Mr. Armitage, at his press conference on May 10, stated that he had made "no specific request" to deploy Indian troops in Iraq "or anything of that nature." The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, on the same day, issued a similar denialthat India received any formal request. This denial was in response to an NDTV news report that a division of the Rashtriya Rifles was being readied to be sent to Iraq. The Indian Express followed this up the next day with a report that two U.S. embassy officials, the Deputy Chief of Mission and the Military Attache, met Indian Army authorities on May 6 to discuss the "stabilisation force" proposal. Yet, the Indian Army denied reports that a division of troops was being prepared for Iraq and reiterated that "no specific request" had been made.

What the Vajpayee Government went to great lengths to conceal was that the U.S., soon after it had made plans for inducting a "stabilisation force", had asked India to join this venture. On April 30, there was a meeting of l6 countries in London attended by the British Defence Minister, Geoffrey Hoon, to discuss the creation of a stabilisation force for Iraq. India did not attend this meeting. In this meeting, it became clear that the staunch allies of the U.S. were not willing or able to commit troops to the level required by the United States. Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Defence Secretary, visited London and at a joint press conference with Mr. Hoon stated: "The larger the number of countries that participate, the fewer the number of forces from the United States will be necessary." The Americans want to pull out their troops quickly and replace them with the troops of what they call the "coalition of the willing."

There was a second meeting of a working group on the stabilisation force in London on May 8. By that time, the Bush administration had approached India to send troops. The demand for a division stemmed from its failure to get any more than 15,000 troops from all its NATO and close allies. The staunchest allies of the U.S., such as Italy and Spain, who from the outset supported the U.S. war, committed only 3,000 and 2,300 troopsrespectively. Poland, which has been given the dubious honour of commanding a zone, is also contributing only 2,300 soldiers. This failure to muster adequate numbers from its traditional NATO allies led the U.S. to ask India to send a division. By sending 17,000 troops, India will have the second largest contingent after the Americans. The British have only 12,000 troops stationed there.

International circles knew what the Indian Government tried to conceal from its own people. As early as May 5, the Polish Deputy Defence Minister had announced that Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Philippines could take part, according to an AFP/PTI report.

Only later did the Indian side acknowledge the American request for troops. Brajesh Mishra, the National Security Adviser, on his return from Washington admitted as much and said, "India did not relent on its insistence that its participation would be possible only under a U.N. arrangement." But faced with relentless pressure, witnessed during the Advani visit to Washington, the Indian Government continues to search for some pretext to send troops into Iraq when it is absolutely clear that there will be nothing but a U.S. occupation, that too a military occupation.

Even now, this inglorious surrender to American pressure is underway. We are told that India will operate in its own independent zone under its own flag; that India will be represented in the "joint task force" to run the command and control structure of the stabilisation force. But the reality cannot be obscured. The U.S. Central Command is in overall command of the occupation force. India's status will be like Poland's in Iraq. The U.S. has assigned a zone to the Polish forces. Under the Polish General, Andrzej Tysckiewicz, troops from Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain and Ukraine will serve. The Vajpayee Government would have us believe that an Indian general commanding a zone, like Poland, fulfils the requirement of doing away with a United Nations-mandated peacekeeping force. Moreover, there is no peacekeeping work in Iraq. There is the U.S. and Britain in occupation of a sovereign country through an illegal war of aggression. The United Nations Security Council, by its resolution has recognised them as the "occupying authority." But the Iraqi people do not accept this colonial status.

Stories of the resistance to the occupation fill the pages of newspapers. As an occupation force, the Americans know only one method to put down opposition — military force. House to house searches, military detention of thousands, and the shooting down of civilian demonstrators are common features of life in Iraq today. Fallujah town saw 15 Iraqi civilians killed in two shootings on protesters. From May l, when the war was declared to be over, to June 28, 60 American soldiers have died. In a single attack in the Majar Al-Kabir town, six soldiers of the British military police were killed. This led President Bush to declare that "dangerous pockets of the old regime remain loyal to it and they, along with their terrorist allies, are behind the deadly attacks." The response is to step up the "pacification" measures.

The popular opposition to the occupation has grown steadily. The Americans are faced with the unpleasant task of running the regime without having even a token civilian administration. Plans for an interim administration have been put off. The highest Shia religious authority, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has issued a fatwa forbidding anyone to participate in America's handpicked consultative body. Meanwhile, plans to hold a local election in An Najaf town were cancelled at the last moment by the head of the U.S. occupation, Paul Bremer, when it became evident that anti-American forces would win the vote.

If a decision to send troops is taken, it will be a decisive moment. It will signify another major step in the Vajpayee Government's continuing quest to become a subordinate ally of the United States. The participation of Indian troops in the subjugation and recolonisation of Iraq will spell the end of any semblance of an independent foreign policy.

The BJP-led Government wants to be on the side of the Americans and is willing to dispatch troops to enforce the colonial occupation. Unlike the ruling circles, a wide spectrum of public opinion and the entire Opposition see things differently. Their support and solidarity will be with the Iraqi people who are opposing and fighting the occupation. There can be no national consensus for acting as agents for an imperial power and betraying both the Iraqi people and our own national traditions.

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