ROUND THE WORLD

New Delhi, 20 November 2007

Winter Chill Sets In

DON’T FORGET IRAN, MR PM

By M D Nalapat

(Holds UNESCO Peace Chair, Prof, Geopolitics, Manipal Academy of

Higher Education, Ex-Resident Editor, Times of India, Delhi)

TEHRAN: While Sonia Gandhi loves holidaying in the European Union, Manmohan Singh's favourite country is the US. Both as India's Finance Minister (1992-96) and from 2004 onwards as Prime Minister, Singh has been consistent in the belief that a Washington-set agenda is in India’s best interests. Because the PM has followed in the role of a White House crony, several countries otherwise friendly to India have distanced themselves from the UPA-led regime.

Russia made the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee undergo the indignity of a body search at Moscow airport recently, while Vladimir Putin declined to find the time to meet with the visiting Indian Defence Minister, A K Antony, or even to host a proper ceremonial dinner for Manmohan Singh

The mood in Moscow has not improved following the rebuff by Manmohan Singh of Russia's efforts to sign a nuclear deal with India that would enable the country to import four more nuclear reactors from Moscow. A move that would reduce the profits of US corporations eager to enter the Indian nuclear energy sector on advantageous terms.

Three years ago, Putin had offered a nuclear deal with India on far more lenient terms than that mandated by the US Congress, but this generous offer was spurned by Singh in favour of the 2005 understanding with George Bush. Two weeks ago, the Bush-backing Indian Prime Minister once again refused to agree to the Russian reactor deal, although Moscow would certainly have ensured the supply of uranium, the way it did at Tarapur.

Incidentally, huge piles of radioactive waste are accumulating in Tarapur because Manmohan Singh is afraid to annoy George Bush by re-processing that into usable fuel that would remove the shortage currently faced by India’s nuclear energy programme. And in a snub to Russia, Singh spent a mere 28 hours in Moscow, as opposed to his week-long official visit to the US.

However, Moscow is not the only country that has been downgraded by Manmohan Singh. Another Indian "strategic partner”, Iran, has been given even more frosty treatment, with key negotiations stalled. Under the UPA, India even voted in the IAEA along with the US and the EU to block Iran's nuclear programme, rather than join other Asian states in abstaining or backing Tehran.

The Prime Minister has also refused to allow the Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to join Pakistan and Iran in implementing the gas pipeline project, or even to suggest an alternative under-sea route. In contrast, India has moved ahead on an alternative pipeline that its US backers hope would link Central Asia to itself via Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan known to be outside the control of non-jihadist forces.

This pipeline has been touted by the same US team that oversaw Washington's backing for the Taliban during 1994-96. The move by the UPA has infuriated both Tehran and Moscow, which now sees the Sonia-led ruling coalition as having joined Kabul and Baghdad in following the US lead on all major policies.

Small wonder that there has been an early winter chill in relations between India and Iran, despite past cooperation in Afghanistan and Central Asia, and the provision of a land route for Indian produce through Iran to Central Asia and Afghanistan, the shorter alternative having been blocked by US ally Pakistan.

Last year, while more than 25,000 visas were given to Iranian nationals to visit India, less than 4,500 Indians were permitted into Iran, most of them pilgrims visiting Shia religious places. And although Iran has three cultural centres in India (Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi), the Ahmedinejad Government has refused the persistent Indian request to open at least a single Indian Cultural Centre in Tehran.

The mullahcracy has also banned Indian movies from entering the country, although this prohibition is being flouted daily by Iranian citizens, who buy CDs of Indian films by the hundreds of thousands. So negative is the present regime in Tehran to anything Indian that they have refused permission to the Indian Embassy to organize an India Cultural Week in Iran, while pressing for sanction to hold a month-long Iran Cultural Festival in India.

Besides, while more than 9,000 Iranian students now study in Indian universities, there are less than a couple of hundred Indian students in Iran, most of them in religious institutions of learning. And although Emperor Shah Jehan was of Persian origin, the Iranian authorities have barred the entry of the film about the Taj Mahal, the monument built by Shah Jehan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Certainly, the movie’s director Akbar Khan cannot be accused of hostility towards Islam.

A few months ago, the only department of Indian studies in Tehran University was shut down by the mullahcracy, who regard the moderate ethos of the world's biggest democracy with suspicion. Notwithstanding the fact that the mullahcracy in Tehran has done severe damage to Iran, by enforcing an economic regime as harmful as the permit-license raj in India during the 1960s and 1970s.

Also, the Iranian regime has embarked on a foreign policy that is both provocative and unwise, seeking to alter a status quo that almost every other country in the region has accepted. Until Iran changes such a self-destructive approach, there is no doubt that India should avoid any sort of military ties with Tehran.

However, economic relations should be given a much higher priority than the UPA has done, and in case there is a US-EU attack on Iran, the national interest demands that New Delhi refuse to participate in this in any form. Ultimately, New Delhi should seek a Tehran-Jakarta-New Delhi partnership on the lines of that with Brazil and South Africa that can act as a moderating and stabilizing force in the world. ----- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)