POLITICS-INDIA: Opposition Grows against Unilateral War on Iraq

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jan 30 2003 (IPS) - Opposition is slowly but steadily building up in India against possible unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq.

On Thursday, the leader of India’s powerful opposition Congress party, Sonia Gandhi called for a concerted effort among like-minded nations to push for a peaceful solution to the issue within the framework of the United Nations.

”If in the present situation, war breaks out in any part of the world, it will not necessarily be confined to a particular area but would impact the whole world,” she said at a party function marking the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.

Mahatma Gandhi, called the ‘apostle of non-violence’ successfully led a peaceful civil disobedience movement which led to the end of British Raj in India and inspired decolonisation struggles around the world following the end of the Second World War.

The Congress party’s stand on the Iraq issue is in consonance with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s call earlier in the week for restraint. ”It is time the superpower showed some restraint and sought United Nations mediation to resolved the dispute,” Vajpayee said at public function Tuesday.

However, Vajpayee, in deference to his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s pro-Washington stance, took care not to name the superpower he was referring to and stressed possible economic hardships to India, which imports most of its oil from the Arab countries around the Persian Gulf.

As part of growing military ties, India and the United States plan to have joint exercises involving frontline fighter aircraft of their air forces later this year.

Over the past year, the militaries of the two countries have been conducting joint exercises that included anti-submarine operations, parachute jumps and strategic military airlifts- in the first clear departure from the days when India was militarily aligned with the former Soviet Union.

India’s stance found reflection in an editorial page article in ‘The Hindu’ on Thursday by the influential paper’s strategic analyst C Raja Mohan, who urged New Delhi to be practical and protect its many interests in a ‘post-Saddam Iraq’ and the Middle East.

”India’s arguments that a war against Iraq could have grave consequences for itself from rising oil prices to a political backlash in the Arab world do have merit. But if war is inevitable and India cannot prevent it, New Delhi must begin to move to the next questions,” Raja Mohan wrote.

”Sitting on the fence until it is all over is a risk-free option. But such timidity might also marginalise India in the potentially historic arrangements that could emerge in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East,” he commented.

Following the Sep. 11 aerial attacks on Washington and New York, India vied with neighbouring Pakistan to offer strategic support for the U.S.-led ‘war against terror’ focused on Afghanistan.

The presence of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami as chief guest for India’s Republic Day celebration on Jan. 26. was occasion for enunciation of New Delhi’s stance as well as Tehran’s on the Iraq question.

”Both countries have the same perception – that the sovereignty and integrity of a nation should not be disturbed and that the people of Iraq should be allowed to decide their polity and that there should be no war,” said Digivjay Singh, junior minister for external affairs told journalists on Thursday.

”It is a matter of satisfaction that Iran has used our soil to express its solidarity with Iraq,” Singh added, referring to several statements made by Khatami during his four-day visit between Jan. 25 and 28.

Khatami made it clear that in spite of the disastrous seven-year war that his country fought with Iraq in the 80s, Tehran considered the United States, which backed the Saddam regime in Iraq through the war, to be the greater evil.

Last year, U.S. President George W Bush included Iran along with Iraq and North Korea in what he called the ”axis of evil” that supported international terrorism and were developing weapons of mass destruction.

In his discussions with Indian officials on the Iraq situation, Khatami was said to have expressed apprehensions that Washington harboured a ”hidden agenda” that covered the whole region and was not confined to just Afghanistan and Iraq. Both countries share borders with his country.

At a public function where he addressed Muslim clerics in New Delhi, Khatami said that following the failure of Marxist ideology and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States seemed to have found a ”new enemy” in Islam.

”There are some people who constantly need enemies to maintain their own power. If they have enemies then they can allot large budgets to pursue expansionist policies,” Khatami said.