India Toes US Line, Dumps Iran

Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India:

They are five sentences that signal a fundamental change in Indian foreign policy of over five decades. In an overt and transparent shift in alignment and emphasis, the Congress-led UPA government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday signed up with the United States on a touchstone issue, asking Iran to be flexible and make concessions to avoid a onfrontation with Washington on the nuclear issue.

India’s blunt message, which is also aimed at allaying U.S concerns over New Delhi’s long-standing ties with Teheran, was conveyed by Prime Minister Singh to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad when the latter telephoned him on Friday.

In fact, the UPA government went to unusual lengths to disclose the gist of the conversation between the two leaders in a brief press release sent to select media.

The government statement read: "The Prime Minister received a phone call from President Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the Iranian request. The (Iranian) President raised the issue about Iran's nuclear programme in the IAEA. Prime Minister advised him that Iran should consider taking a flexible position so as to avoid a confrontation. The Prime Minister repeated the necessity for Iran to make concessions to this end. India supports the resolution of all issues through discussion and consensus in the IAEA."

Seldom, if ever, has the government been so direct and candid in conveying a foreign policy shift through an episode some American policy analysts saw as a test case for India-U.S ties. READ MORE

Although the issue of referring Iran to the UN Security Council is expected to come up before the IAEA board of governors on Saturday, for New Delhi, that matter became secondary to proving its bonafides to Washington to clinch the civilian nuclear energy deal it signed with the US earlier this year.

India had been under tremendous pressure from Washington to back its decision to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for violation of its Nuclear Non-Proliferation commitments. Some US officials and lawmakers had gone as far as describing this as India’s "for us or against us moment," with the implied threat that if New Delhi did not support Washington, US would find it hard to live up to the nuclear deal.

With this public rebuff and reproaching of Iran, New Delhi seems to have decided to toe the US line. The fact that the PMO took the trouble of spelling out details of the conversation and releasing it to the media indicates that it was very much intent on getting the word across to Washington: We are with you.

Establishment figures argued that there was nothing new in the government’s position, pointing to the fifth sentence caveat that India "supports the resolution of all issues through discussion and consensus in the IAEA." In fact, when the matter comes up before the IAEA board of governors on Saturday, India is once again expected to press for a consensus.

But the operative portions -- in so far as New Delhi’s answers to Washington’s questions -- are sentences three and four in which India advises Iran to be flexible and make concessions. It virtually signals an end to the anti-Americanism that ran through South Block for five decades.