By Patricia Gossman
Commerce secretary Ron Brown just returned from India after clinching 57 billion in trade deals for US companies. The trip, more lucrative than the one he made to China last August represented a similar exercise in the responsible salesmanship. The China trip followed the Clinton administration’s capitulation to business interests who lobbied the US to stop pressuring Beijing on human right Likewise, the designation of India as one of the “big emerging markets” has prompted the administration to retreat from 1993’s short lived candor about India’s wretched human rights record. The results in both countries have been the same: A deafening silence from Washington on human rights and escalating to repression for the victims. Brown’s visit followed Defense Secretary William Perry’s, the first such visit to India by a defense secretary since the end of the Cold War, Perry’s trip was aimed at improving US India military cooperation and possibly not for down the road, arms sales, Centre Serial issues like human nights were downplayed. One Indian observer noted that Perry was not about to rock the boat” with Ron Brown on the way. Commercial concerns also dominated British Foreign secretary Dou glas Hurd’s recent trip to the region. While endorsing India’s policy on Kashmir, he peddled British Aerospace’s Hawk trainer jet, which India is considering buying in a SIS billion deal
Two years ago, the Clinton administration broke with its predecessors by publicly criticizing India’s human rights record. Indian politicians immediately condemned the move evidence of a “ili” towards Pakistan which would endanger India-American relations. Their complaints were Joined by the US companies caper to enter the Indian market. With the help of India’s lobbyists, Indian business interests soon had an earn Washington, and the White House quickly gave in. Since early 1994 the administration has blunted criticism of India’s human rights record, choosing instead to focus on trade and military cooperation
So far, the US business community has endorsed putting human rights on the back burner. Last spring, one of General Electric’s vice presidents, Michael Gadbaw, head of the India Interest Group, a group of American companies interested in investing in India, remarked that corporate relations between the US and India were too important for the administration to tangle with human rights US Am bassador Frank Wisner echoed this refrain by suggesting that governments should discuss human rights privately. So eager, are American business executives to cash in on the Indian market that more of them will join Brown’s India trip than traveled with him to China
In Beijing, Brown went so far as to say that public criticism of human rights abuse was nothing more than a “feel-good” policy that accomplished nothing. Clearly, the “commercial diplomacy” he promotes as an alternative has done little for the hundreds of dissidents, workers and members of religious groups who remain in Chinese jails. Similarly, as the international community stopped shaming India, human rights conditions in Kashmir deteriorated, despite Indian promises of elections. Indian troops continue to execute detainees in custody, kill civilians, in reprisal attacks and burn down neighborhoods and villages as collective punishment for those suspected of supporting militants. Civilians have also fallen victim to the various militant groups fighting for a change in the political status of Kashmir. Although the Indian government claims to have punished security personnel for abuses, not a single soldier has been prosecuted for the murder or creature of a detainee
By muting public criticism and for asking economic pressure, the Clinton administration has made clear that continued abuse of human rights carries no adverse consequence. Secretary Brown Squandered as opportunity to reverse this trend and demon state a renewed vitality in the administration’s commitment to human rights. Instead, he reassured to India that business need not wait for improvements in human rights
Secretary Perry signed a historic framework of understanding to pave the way for more military cooperation between India and the United States. The agreement envisages military exchanges, joint exercises, and regular cooperation between civilians in the Pentagon and India’s Defense Ministry, some of whom wilt meet in the US this spring Ina welcome move Perry did urge India to allow access to such organizations as the Red Crost But that statement would have more impact if he made clear that no US military and will be providing as long as India maintains its abysmal human rights record in Kashmir
The pursuit of trade and investment opportunities need not be apathetical to the vigorous promotion of human nights. But “quici diplomacy can yield results only if coupled with a credible threat of public criticism or economic pressure should private concerns not be heeded. The international community docs India no favors by ignoring abuses. India’s allies and business partners should know that their protection, 100, depends on the rule of law. If India does not respect rights of its own citizens, it is unlikely to protect those of its trading partners.(Courtesy: Boston Globe)
Article extracted from this publication >> February 24, 1995
