The recent apparent U-turn in U.S. policy toward India is a source of surprise for many political pundits. But if we unearth some hidden or less publicized facts, we find that a consistent and continuous pattern of cooperation between the U.S. and India has tong existed.

The U.S. has patronized the Indian war machine in different ways; The Kennedy administration equipped four divisions of Indian troops.

President Reagan signed a Memorandum of Understanding for India in November 1984. This action smashed legal barriers and paved the way for the U.S. to sell India high technology goods, including weaponry. Under this memorandum’s protective umbrella, General Electric was allowed to sell New Delhi its F404 Jet engine for use in Indian New Light Combat Aircraft. (It is pertinent to note that the F404 jet engine powers the U.S. Air Force’s FA8 Hornet fighter plane.) Reagan’s pro Indian legal action also opened the door for General Electric to sell gas turbines for new Indian frigates. Other U.S.

Military industrial concerns like Honeywell Incorporated and Northrop Corporation joined the race with General Electric to sell avionics for Low Combat Aircraft, rocket radar systems, and a Very Low. Frequency Communication System for use in submarines.

High-level defense seminars, convened annually, are another arena for cooperation between the U.S. and India. They are arranged by the U.S. National Defense University and India’s Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis. Senior military officers attend these seminars, at which the agenda includes exploring venues for security cooperation, and sharing and developing a common perception of the threat in South Asia. Areas of cooperation in projected future military crises are also identified in the seminars.

In other words, these seminars are used to develop a strategy to fight together as “allies.” President George Bush allocated $300,000 to train Indian military students in the U.S. in fiscal year 1991.

The credit for convening such seminars of a sensitive nature goes to President Bush, Surprisingly, they are the first the U.S, has held with a foreign nation that had long Standing security ties with the Soviet Union—once the “Evil Empire” according to Washington’s ideological framework, By establishing the seminars, Bush has exposed himself as no friend of the Muslim world, He knows very well that India is an anti-Muslim country that is pursuing a genocidal policy toward Muslims in India and Kashmir.

The Kennedy administration was not the first to start equipping India’s military forces. The roots of this cooperation can be traced to the birth of India as an independent country. The Truman administration first assured Mr. Nehru that “in the years to come the people of this great nation will find the U.S.aconstant friend.” In 1950 the U.S. secretary of state also confirmed this cooperation by reminding Madame Pandit that in fact the United States had sent a much greater amount of arms to India than to Pakistan.

The U.S. not only built up India’s military muscle; it also assumed the role of financial sponsor. The U.S. is the largest foreign investor in India. It invested $639 million in the year 1990 alone. These investments have made the Indian computer software, electronics, telecommunications and turbine industries viable and competitive.

Last year trade between the two nations reached $5.7 billion, India also emerged as an unofficially labeled Most Favored Nation as recipient of millions of dollars for child nutrition, P.L, 480 and agriculture development projects. In the past, the Johnson administration extended $2 billion in food aid to India.

In this creeping operation, the U.S. Department of Commerce has been assigned a pivotal role to bolster the Indian economy and strengthen commercial ties. It organized an official U.S. trade delegation to India every year during the 1980s and 1990s; the delegations are composed of executives from U.S, companies from a specific sector. With the status of an official delegation, these U.S. business executives gain easy access to Indian government officials, a telecommunications delegation visited New Delhi in 1991, and a delegation from food processing companies is scheduled for 1992.

The U.S. government has helped India in another way. It has been instrumental in instructing international organizations to be generous to India, According to the New York Times of March 26, 1992, India is one of six nations that have relied on International Monetary Fund aid for more than 30 years. The Bush administration followed preceding administrations and gave a green light to the IMF to give India billions of dollars.

To cement the existing ties on firmer ground, visits to India by President Bush, Secretary of State James Baker and the secretary of commerce are planned, Joint military exercises were conducted.

The history of U.S. acts and Washington’s future plans negate the view that there is attend toward sea change in Indo U.S. relations. In fact, the only visible change is the role the imperialist West has assigned India to play in the post-Cold War era.

For the first time in modern history, two Asian nations—China as a military power and Japan as an economic power—stand in the way of Western hegemony. China and Japan are in a position to materialize the dream of “Asia for Asians.” The Soviet Union no longer exists as a balancing Asian power to counter the power of these two countries. In the eyes of U.S. and British strategists India, with a population of 800 million people, is the only nation left in Asia to check these two heavyweights.

Some political analysts suggest yet another scenario. An alliance between China and India is necessary to counter the volatile Muslim world. The prerequisite of such an alliance is that both countries should be Western economic colonies, appendices to U.S. policies. Remember, China is not the China of the 1950s and 1960s. It is a China where the capitalists have built their beachheads; one secretary of the U.S. Navy said that ‘where our money went our flags followed’. President Bush hinted at this reality in another way. He said that where our technology went our ideas followed. And it is a biter fact that today’s China is nailed down by both imperialist tools— money as well as technology. One of the saddest facts is that the US. Persisted in cooperating with a regime that did not deserve it for so many reasons. India has a very dismal record on human rights. It adopted a genocidal policy against Sikhs, Kashmiris and Muslims, in India. It committed aggression against neighboring countries; it interfered in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives. And countries like Bhutan and Nepal are subordinated to colonial status.

By: Jafar Hussain Syed, the Muslim World Series.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 9, 1993