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US A Better Ally For India: Subramanian Swamy

Prakash M Swamy

The United States will be a more trusted ally of India than Russia, says maverick politician Subramanian Swamy.

"Washington asks us to fall in line only with fundamental issues which are in the larger interests of both nations," he adds. "The Administration has clearly stated it will not interfere in the Kashmir issue despite the best efforts of Pakistan."

"The US wants only 51 per cent adherence as against 100 per cent adherence demanded by Russia."

Swamy, a former Union minister, was on his way to Harvard University to deliver a lecture when he stopped over in New York recently. He spoke on a variety of issues, including India's liberalization polices, the alleged efforts of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to topple the central government, and the failure of the BJP-led government.

By 2002, India will have to remove all the quantitative restrictions on imports, he added.

"Our manufacturing sector will collapse if we don't do it," he warns.

"The tariffs should not be more than 30 per cent and that is precisely the WTO requirement that we are trying to fight," he continues.

"India has failed to take any steps to make our industry equipped to become more competitive."

"We have protected our domestic industry far too long and they were happily dishing out substandard goods. Now, they see red when there is competition," he says.

"A 1944 model of Morris Minor was sold for over 40 years as the Ambassador car in India and consumers were denied any choice. They called me all kinds of names when I supported India becoming a globally competitive economy."

India should be in a state of economic preparedness. "The WTO gives a fantastic opportunity for India to export agro products. The irony is that we don't have any infrastructure support as a backup."

Milk is 15 times more expensive abroad compared to India, he says, and yet India with huge cattle population is not a milk exporting country.

India has not formulated a national agenda on how to take the country to the next century and instead wasted over two decades on "worthless issues such as Mandal (affirmation action policies) and (Babri) Masjid," Swamy, who is president of the Janata Party, continues.

Swamy, a former Harvard professor in economics for over a decade, says Indian politicians lacked the "vision to make India a superpower."

"Either these selfish politicians are bogged down with issues such as Cauvery, Mandal, Ram temple and language, or are busy making money for themselves and their families," he says referring to water disputes between states, affirmative action program that seeks to increase quota for lower castes in schools and at work places, and the pulling down of Babri Masjid to build a Ram temple in its place.

"It is shameful that we have not yet formulated a defined national purpose and policy in the last 50 years," he continues.

"Did we develop a plan how to overtake China in industrialization or at least did we try and find new markets for our products? All we could achieve is working hard to overtake China in population and not in industrialization."

On Indian politics, Swamy asserts the BJP-led government was a total failure on all fronts.

"There is a lot of speculation about Prime Minister Vajpayee's health," he continues. "Some say the government is being run by hardcore RSS elements despite opposition from non-BJP partners in the government."

Swamy says the RSS would try to get rid of its opponents within the BJP and the central government to pursue its policy of Hindutva.

"The sacking of Kalyan Singh (as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh) and sidelining of (Cabinet minister) Sikandar Bakht have only proved that the clutches of the RSS are getting stronger."

He is convinced the RSS is getting impatient with the "diluted state of affairs."

It may even topple the government to go in for a fresh election to get rid of its partners who are opposing Hindutva and the creation of a Hindu state, he adds.

With Pakistan getting Talibanized under General Pervez Musharraf, any attempt to make India a Hindu state would only invite more problems in South Asia, he avers..

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