A proclamation by President Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of a new era of U.S.-Indian friendship was sidetracked Tuesday by the massacre of Sikhs, a rebuke of Clinton by the Indian president and continued disagreement on nuclear weapons.
The pomp and ceremony of the first visit by a U.S. president to India in 22 years was somewhat overshadowed by the slaughter of more than 30 Sikhs in the disputed province of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan.
A visibly angry Vajpayee left little doubt that he blames Pakistan for the killings and delivered an ominous warning, placing Clinton in a delicate position when he visits Pakistan later this week.
“There is a deliberate design to foment trouble, to encourage killing, mass murders, to sabotage any attempt to bring about normalcy in this part of the world,” Vajpayee said of Pakistan. “This policy is not going to pay, and I hope this question will be discussed by the president in Islamabad.”
Describing the killing as a “premeditated act of barbarism” and the violence in Kashmir as “ethnic cleansing,” Vajpayee added, “We have the means and the will to eliminate this menace.”
Pakistan denied responsibility for the massacre, and it is unclear what its military government would gain from such an act at a time when it is trying to gain U.S. respect.
Some of the anti-Indian guerrillas in Kashmir are not under direct Pakistani control and they may want to send a defiant message to India and the U.S.
Clinton, without suggesting a culprit, expressed his disgust at the killing.
“We certainly share your outrage and heartbreak over last night’s brutal attack,” Clinton told Vajpayee. “It reminds us of what tremendous suffering this conflict has caused India.”
Tuesday was the first official day of Clinton’s state visit to India, which included a meeting with Vajpayee, a formal dinner and a wreath-laying at a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi.
Clinton and Vajpayee depicted the visit as the long-overdue beginning of a meaningful relationship between two of the world’s most powerful and populous democracies.
Relations were strained during the Cold War when India often sided with the Soviet Union. Since then, strengthening relations with India has been low on the U.S. agenda, partly because of the administration’s frustration with India for insisting on developing nuclear weapons.
During Tuesday’s discussion, Clinton and Vajpayee declared that all that would now change. Vajpayee accepted Clinton’s offer to visit Washington, and the two agreed to meet regularly.
At the state dinner, however, Indian President K. R. Narayanan seemed to take issue with recent Clinton statements that South Asia is perhaps the world’s most dangerous region.
“It has been suggested that the Indian subcontinent is the most dangerous place in the world today and Kashmir is a nuclear flashpoint,” Narayanan said during a toast. “These alarmist descriptions will only encourage those who want to break the peace and indulge in terrorism and violence.”
U.S. officials played down the statement. But Narayanan’s reaction illustrates the region’s diplomatic sensitivities. Indian leaders have delivered contradictory messages this week, portraying Pakistan as a belligerent, unpredictable nation that forces them to have a nuclear bomb but simultaneously insisting that South Asia is stable and essentially peaceful.
Most of Tuesday was occupied with formal gestures designed to send the message that from now on, the U.S. and India are on the same team. After a formal welcoming ceremony, Clinton visited the Gandhi memorial, a park-like preserve with an eternal flame where the great leader was cremated before his ashes were scattered on rivers throughout India.
After a wreath was laid atop the memorial, Clinton and his daughter Chelsea took a handful of rose petals from a basket and scattered them atop the memorial, a polished black slab of granite inscribed with Gandhi’s last words, “Hey Ram,” Hindi for “Oh God.”
Clinton and Vajpayee announced an “architecture” for a new dialogue between their countries. For example, the two heads of state will hold regular summits, and their secretaries of state will meet annually.
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“I think with President Clinton’s visit and our meeting today, we have laid a firm foundation for the future,” Vajpayee said.
That foundation may be largely economic. A high percentage of Silicon Valley startups are run by Indian-Americans, and they have begun forging links with India’s own high-tech industry.
“India and America should be better friends and stronger partners,” Clinton said. “We have neglected this relationship for more than two decades. It is too important to ever fall into disrepair again.”
Through the Cold War, Pakistan was America’s ally and India was regarded with unease. Clinton’s trip is in essence formalizing U.S. policy’s tilt in the other direction.
After a leisurely week in India, Clinton will fly in and out of Pakistan in one day, making the stop as fast and perfunctory as U.S. officials can manage.
Yet the new dialogue announced Tuesday falls short of the joint commissions the United States has established with Russia, Kazakstan and Ukraine, all with Vice President Al Gore as co-chairman.
That may be because Clinton could not commit the next administration in this way. As the pomp and ceremony played out, 2,000 protesters gathered a few miles away for a march, despite a ban on demonstrations in New Delhi this week. Roughly 250 were arrested, most released within three hours.
The protesters, led by members of four left-wing Indian parties, had intended to march toward the U.S. Information Service building in the heart of the city. Their placards bore such slogans as, “Clinton Go Back” and “Say No to Filthy Imperialist Culture.”
But the one issue that could truly impede U.S.-Indian relations is nuclear weapons.
Clinton very much wants India to halt its nuclear program, while India insists it is necessary to protect itself from Pakistan. Clinton and Vajpayee did not avoid the issue.
“At a time when most nations, including the United States and Russia, are moving away from nuclear weapons, the world needs India to lead in the same direction,” Clinton said.
He urged India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, though his position was clearly weakened because the U.S. Senate has itself not ratified the pact.
Vajpayee, for his part, said that “I’ve explained to President Clinton the reasons that compel us to maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent.”