NEW DELHI: The Bush regimes retaliatory trade measures against India united the entire Lok Sabha. Every major party expressed shock and outrage over the “arm-twisting” tactics of the US, and vehemently urged the government to “stand up to US bullies.”

George Fernandes, Somnath Chatterjee, Saifuddin Choudhury and others from the Janata Dal and the Left parties, who spearheaded the highly charged discussion, wanted the government to cancel the Indo-US joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean to show its displeasure at the withdrawal of duty benefits by the US to Indian pharmaceutical exports and to call a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement and G-77 to mobilize opinion against the US on this issue.

Reacting to their protests, which began as soon as the House assembled for the day, the Minister of State for Commerce, P. Chidambaram, called the US action “unjustified and unwarranted.” He added that it had “ironically underscored” the fact that government had not yielded to pressure or failed to protect its Vital national interests on this issue, contrary to the misgivings expressed on this score in the last 10 months. “We did not resort to panic or polemics,” he said, promising a more detailed response.

Congress (I) MP A. Charles endorsed the demand, by MPs from various parties, for a unanimous resolution by the House condemning the US action, and ruling party member Mani Shankar Ayer went so far as to call for a reassessment of Indo-US relations against this “attempt to reduce to India to a vassal state.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party pitched its response slightly lower, Senior party leader Jaswant Singh, said the issue was the most crucial test of India’s economic sovereignty, and urged the government not to buckle under this attempt to make it reduce pharmaceutical prices. However, referring to the utterances of US officials against India, which other members had condemned, he said the phraseology they used did not matter. “The caravan should not stop every time a dog barks,” Singh remarked.

As soon as the House met, Janata Dal and Left MPs wanted question hour suspended to take up this issue. After a brief wrangle, it was deferred until zero hour. As soon as zero hour began, George Fernandes (JD) and Saifuddin Choudhury (CPM), along with various other MPs from these parties, were on their feet, demanding a discussion. The Commerce Minister wanted the discussion deferred until he had more details on the US decision, but the House was in no mood to oblige, and the Speaker, Shivraj Patil, also favored an immediate discussion.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 15, 1992