Daily Times

A famous quote by Henry Kissinger that “America has no permanent friends or enemy’s only permanent interests” is reflected in the new US defence policy bill for fiscal year 2018.U.S. House of Representatives has passed a $ 696 billion defence policy in a bipartisan vote including $ 30 billion core more for Pentagon operations as requested by President Donald Trump that would exceed President Trump’s budget request and provides a break through to the longstanding hurdles on national defence spending. All but eight Republicans and 117 Democrats voted for the bill, which surpasses the $549billion cap on defence spending set under the 2011 Budget Control Act by about $72billion.Interestingly US has hit towards its national interest which is aligned with India and US- India defence cooperation bill reflects US inclination towards India. US House adopted legislative amendments to NDAA-2018, and conditioned $400M reimbursement suggesting increased restrictions on US civil-military assistance to Pak. Back in NDAA 2017 authorized up to $900 in CSF for Pak.

An amendment moved by Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, was adopted by a voice vote by the House as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2018, beginning 1 October this year. NDAA-2018 was passed by the House 344-81. The India related amendment passed by the House requires the Secretary of Defence, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between the United States and India. “The United States is the world’s oldest democracy and India is the world’s largest democracy. It is vitally important to develop a strategy that advances defence cooperation between our two nations,” Bera said. However this, statement seems a little early, India has not reached at the level where it can be called as world’s largest democracy.

Democracy demands equal rights and equal representation of people; however in case of India it is does not exist. In the year 2015 India saw several major attacks on human rights in India and 2016/17 human rights report compiled by Amnesty International identified 12 major human rights violations in India that year. India Communist party of India (Maoist) was suspected of extortion, abduction and unlawful killings in Central and South India. Crimes against children rose by 5% in 2015 as compared to the previous year. An amendment in a child labour law by the Parliament that allowed some exceptions was opposed by child rights activists, who were concerned it would affect marginalized groups and girl children. There is no freedom of expression in India and several people were arrested under sedition laws for expressing their dissent with government policy. Peoplewere arrested for even posting comments on Facebook; Two men were arrested under informational technology law for sharing a satirical image of a Hindu nationalist group.

It is too early to call India as largest democracy. If people are not having freedom of expression, being abused by army personnel, children rights are at stake and continued human rights violation in Jammu & Kashmir, altogether puts a big question mark on India’s credibility of being a largest democracy in the world. Indians enjoy huge presence in US Congress, such Indian diaspora creates conducive passages for US-India cooperation. Besides Senator-elect Harris, Indian American community now has four members in the U.S House of Representatives. Ami Bera, the lone member of the outgoing House has won his California seat narrowly while Raja Krishnamurthi from Chicago, Pramila Jayapal from Washington and Ro Khanna from California will be fresh Indian Americans faces in the US legislature. During 1990s Indian lobby focused on countering Pakistani lobby groups which were quite strong during cold war period. The first major achievement of Indian lobby in US was to defend 1998 nuclear test, however it was followed by US- India civil nuclear agreement bill in US Congress in 2008 and real clout of Indian lobby was confirmed. Securing a deal without being a non- member to NPT signifies achievements of Indian lobby in US Congress. The India lobby emphasized the positive aspects of the civilian atomic agreement, ensuring its safe passage at every stage in the US Congress. Thus it paves way ahead for more fields to unveil and making relationship more stronger, where Modi and Trump each enjoys corporate style of administration.

Modi has secured $621 B defence cooperation bill with US and it is also because of the growing ties between India and Israel. Defence had been a key driver of Indian-Israeli cooperation, making both premiers to create a bilateral technology innovation fund worth $40 million. Israel is ready for both Make in India and Make with India. Under its make in India project the US military industrial complex Lockheed Martin will build the jets through a partnership with Indian industrial giant TATA. This $12 billion deal with US further enhances the effective utility of Make in India project in enhancing bilateral ties between US & India. Since India has ousted its strained historical ties with Israel and has paved its way for cooperation with US as well, forgoing the NAM mindset and looking for joint ventures. The emerging India- Israel defence ties are also welcomed by Neo Cons in US Congress because the present US Congress under Trump administration have humungous number of them supporting Jewish lobby and Israel. The neo cons helped India to secure $621 billion defence cooperation in the current administration.

The Indian-US defence cooperation is to contain China and project India as a regional hegemon in South Asia. A new Grand Chessboard is now created in the South Asian region where US is using India as bishop to counter CPEC and China’s regional hegemony, while China is using Pakistan as a Trump card to counter India and US securing billion dollar project; CPEC. In this grand chess board the options for Pakistan are now viable; Pakistan should look towards Russia for defence cooperation to counter the India- US alliance. Moreover, regionally Iran could be a good option where Pakistan can play its card. Entering Iran into CPEC could deteriorate Indian ambitions of Chabahar. Pakistan is the only state which is still under the clutches of US War on Terror. Pakistan has launched Operation Raadul fasad and it is still going on with the recent development of launching Khyber-4 in Rajgal Valley, Khyber Agency. However, US is securing such a large amount of defence pact with India only signify that US has lost its notion of War against Terrorism. Last year US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter refused to give a certification as a result it was not given a $300 M under CSF to Pakistan. US is now more interested in securing defence deals with India which are based more on economic terms and have no intentions towards peace and security.  Hence, it proves that for the US it’s only the interest in that particular timeframe which matters not the geo-political situation.

The writer is freelance columnist from Hassan Abdal