It is a question that the BJP leadership, in particular, must ponder over. It is the party that made India a nuclear weapon power and made Indians, both here and abroad, proud. Now a concerted attempt is being made to bail out a beleaguered Manmohan Singh by playing on the BJP’s deep-rooted anti-Left sentiments.
Commenting on the deal Burns said: “Twenty or 30 years from now, many Americans would say India is one of the two or three most important global partners — the way Japan and the European Union are today.”
Read it carefully, from India’s security perspective. After World War II, the US imposed a pacifist constitution on Japan that prevented it from having a standing army of its own, leave alone its own nuclear weapons. As far as Europe is concerned, NATO is a US-led security alliance and there is no doubt about who will call the shots in a time of crisis. So, should India become America’s junior partner in its global security architecture tomorrow, as Japan and EU are today?
