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Chidanand Rajghatta
WASHINGTON, Jan 23: In an unprecedented critique of democracy and governance in India, US officials have expressed concern over what they see as a rise in caste and religious-based politics that is threatening to ``undermine pluralism, civil society, good governance and the rule of law.''
Long held as a shining example of a vibrant democracy in the world, India has in recent weeks been clubbed with Pakistan as countries troubled with religious fanaticism and sectarian violence.
Much to the dismay of Indian officials, the sporadic violence against Christians in India came in for an uncharacteristic -- and unprecedented -- mention in policy speeches last week by Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott and Assistant Secretary Karl Inderfurth.
Indian officials were particularly nettled by Talbott's remark that there has been a spate of murderous attacks on Christians in Gujarat and elsewhere. There had not been a single killing in Gujarat on account of the religious strife, one official said, speaking before thelatest incident in Orissa.
The impression that there has been large-scale violence against Christians in India has also been fuelled by some breathless reporting in US newspapers of localised incidents in Gujarat. This correspondent was accosted last night by an Eritrean cab driver who was outraged about the murder of Christians in India (about which he had heard on the radio). He then delivered a passionate homily about the virtues of Christianity. The Orissa incident is bound to amplify the situation.
Indian officials also resented being clubbed with Pakistan on the issue of religious fundamentalism. Most Americans are not even aware that we are constitutionally a secular republic which the BJP or any other party cannot undo. Pakistan on the other hand is a self-declared Islamic Republic, another official complained. Saying the BJP is fundamentalist is like saying the Republican Party is fundamentalist, the official argued, because both parties have their extremist fringe groups.
But such distinctionsare beyond US officialdom fed on feverish reportage from India. India today reverberates with inflammatory rhetoric from religious leaders who seem bent on opening the wounds that Gandhi and Nehru worked so hard to heal and thus jeopardising what Indians rightly and proudly regard as their civilisational experience, Talbott said last week.
His colleague, Rick Inderfurth, also spoke at some length about the strife in India. What is worrying Indian officials is that the Clinton administration will begin to look at the nuclear question throug the narrow prism of religious tensions and the India-Pakistan problem, overlooking New Delhi's larger security concerns.
Talbott, in fact, told the Stanford meeting that the radicalisation in the subcontinent is highly relevant to the nuclear question in South Asia -- and therefore to the American effort to engage in preventive diplomacy there.In addition to dealing with the immediate issue of the weapons, we also need to understand the circumstances and trends thatcould precipitate their use. That reality poses a challenge for Indian and Pakistani statecraft: how best to establish security policies that will, to the greatest extent possible, lengthen the fuses and remove the hair-triggers weaponry now accumulating in both countries, Talbott said.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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