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Bush's views worry India
'Islamic fascists' remark is not easy to defend in a secular and democratic country that is home to 150 million Muslims
- By Jyoti Malhotra, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 August 15, 2006
- Image Credit: Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
India has withdrawn into a brittle silence since the description recently by US President George W. Bush of the men behind the Heathrow terror plot as "Islamic fascists". As Bush's simple-minded metaphors reverberate around the world, phrases such as the "Christian wars'', "Christian Crusades'' and "a thousand year war between Islam and Christianity'' are beginning to find their way to the verbal surface in India. As if India hadn't had enough to contend with already in the battle of the mind for a secular state.
Since the division of the country in 1947, the idea of India has rooted for a state that is divorced from religious belief, all the while embedded in an intensely religious nation. In contrast, Pakistan has celebrated the idea of a religious statehood, arguing that statecraft and religious fervour need not be separated according to classic western theses.
With 9/11, one of those terribly clarifying moments in our history, it seemed as if the world led by Bush was going to seize the day and cut the boastfulness of Samuel Huntington down to size. Alas, Bush went on to invade Iraq for no ostensible reason and not one of his establishment has till today been able to find one. Three years later, with Osama Bin Laden still on the loose and Iraq in danger of being rent asunder by a civil war, the world, courtesy the selfsame Bush, is a far more dangerous place.
To be fair, Bush's greatest advocates never accused him of being the greatest of communicators. He mixed his metaphors all the time, so much so that even his wife was allowed to laugh at him publicly. After 9/11, we stopped uncomfortably short when we heard his "If you're not with me, you're against me'' thesis, but we forgave him his inappropriate speech in his hour of stress.
New low
With "Islamic fascists'', however, the all-American president has sunk to a new low. And it is India, like nowhere else in the world, which will suffer the most for this new characterisation. India, which should have been America's ally in a difficult world, what with the common ideas of democracy and liberty, is finding itself increasingly irritated at having to defend this foot-in-mouth emperor.
For a start, with 150 million Muslims, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. India is also these days engaged in an unusually warm embrace with Bush & Co. which is pushing a nuclear energy agreement with India that will accord New Delhi a special place in the international nuclear order. So, to keep the long story short, you could pretty much these days call India and the US, "best friends''.
So why, then is India squirming so uncomfortably inside this embrace? Instead of being in thrall of the most powerful country in the world, instead of feeling wooed and delighted at the thought of having powerful friends in high places, why does New Delhi retreat into a "no comment'' each time the Americans open their mouth to speak?
For a start, the horror of Iraq refuses to go away. Then, when the Mumbai bomb blasts happened in the beginning of July, gratuitous American spokesmen told India that New Delhi needed proof to discontinue the conversation with Pakistan (most of India wanted to know what proof Bush & Co. had before he invaded Afghanistan, leave alone Iraq). Then came Bush's "Islamic fascists'' comment. And only last week, even as India was shifting into high alert before the Independence Day on August 15, the US embassy in Delhi put out an advisory claiming that the "Al Qaida'' could be prowling around crowded marketplaces and especially airports in Delhi and Mumbai. Twenty-four hours later, Washington DC had rejected its own embassy's analysis.
Gun-happy view
Meanwhile, the Indian government was scrambling around to cope with a threat that wasn't. Once it had been spoken, the "Al Qaida'' began to acquire a life of its own, even though it is widely known in India that groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, allegedly masterminded by Pakistan's ISI, are far more active in this part of the sub-continent. The biggest ever security operation in contemporary history was being mounted across the nation to deal with the fear of being unsafe. And all because America said so.
Increasingly, America's gun-happy view of the world is beginning to bother India. The establishment still refuses all criticism until the nuclear deal is done, hopefully by the end of this year. But the growing discomfort with Bush is becoming far too obvious in large parts of the country. What is worse is that, at the exact moment we were supposed to be friends, Indians are more and more wondering if this American embrace is not turning out to be a fatal death clasp.
The friendship with India was supposed to also make America look good.
And yet that friendship is now looking increasingly brittle. Bush's commentary, especially his current "Islamic fascists'' quip, has so concerned the Indian establishment that it is worrying how it can safeguard its own secular credentials. Indians, Hindus and Muslims alike, are increasingly agitated about the nature of the Indo-US relationship. And that is turning out to be a real worry for New Delhi.
If India's Congress government moves against Bush, the nuclear deal is at stake. If it doesn't, then it risks alienating large sections of people at home. So far India hasn't told America to think before it speaks. Perhaps it might be time to do so.
Jyoti Malhotra is the Diplomatic Editor of Star News, India.
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