With him, with us

American President George W. Bush called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week to recommit himself to energetic support to follow up on the paces of the Indo-US civilian nuclear initiative. America’s congressional calendar requires haste and focus, and other Bush administration officials like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have said they would try to get the passage of the deal through their Congress, and thereby strengthen the strategic partnership, before Bush leaves office. Both governments have invested significant capital in the deal. It is an investment anchored in a determination to be on the right side of history, and to make the necessary paradigm shifts for this. The US administration has done battle with domestic non-proliferationists, the so-called and formidable non-proliferation ayotallahs. Prime Minister Singh has taken his own Congress party and ultimately the Lok Sabha on board to reorient India’s view of its place and engagements in the emerging world order.

It would help, therefore, if the two countries understood each other a little better, starting with each other’s democratic systems. Consider a remark by Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, in the lead-up to the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha. As he affirmed the resolve to fast-track the nuclear agreement, he was asked if his country could do business with the UPA government in case it failed to get the full support of the House. He replied: “Minority governments are common around the world. You can’t say, ‘Oh well, we are going to stop dealing with you till the next election or until some new coalition or something.’” The answer was of a piece with Bush’s “with us or against us” cheer to Singh when they met on the sidelines of the G8 meet in Japan. “Congratulations on your leadership at home,” he said at a moment when the Left announced its intention to withdraw support.

India goes into the nuclear deal with the understanding that the Bush administration works within the framework of the US congressional calendar. Similarly, Dr Singh took the last necessary step in going to the IAEA board of governors on the understanding that failure to show majority support in Parliament would risk his government and the nuclear deal. His government then would not have been reduced to minority status, it would have fallen. And now that the UPA government works through subsequent stages in the process, it does so with the democratic acknowledgement that its acts will be honoured by subsequent governments, whatever their political make-up. Perhaps the Americans have so got used to dealing with Pervez Musharraf that they disregard the fact that in India they deal with a democratically elected government, not an individual.