Ever since the US attack on Saddam’s Iraq “anti-Americanism”, in one of its many forms, has been paradoxically defined in yet another form of “pro-Americanism”. A Saudi commentator described it as follows: “The minute you are counted on or are backed by Americans, it’s the kiss of death”. That is rather over-dramatic, yet if there is any leader and any government that can prove that the kiss need not necessarily be lethal, they are Manmohan Singh and the UPA. Two developments encourage this view. One is the new initiative taken by L K Advani in a welcome departure from the BJP’s initial dithering. The other is the proposed “mechanism” by which to sort out the “implications”, as the Left sees it, of the Hyde Act.

For the first time since the 123 kerfuffle, both Advani and the BJP spokesman have declared that they have “no objection” to 123 and have distanced themselves from the Left’s position on this controversy. True, they have asked for “amendments” to the Indian Atomic Act to ensure India’s “strategic independence”, given that as Advani sees it, America and India are strategic “unequals”. Meanwhile the ranks of the Left have become dimly aware that categorical declarations on a wholly negative note in the Karat style, is not a policy. It is no more than an attitude.

Both the “mechanism” which is to be set up to satisfy the Left and Advani’s formal request for “amendments” to the Atomic Act are face-saving and time-consuming devices. Asked whether, as a quid pro quo, the government is expected to hold back 123 Yechury chose not to respond.

The Left-Right Agreement
Significantly both the BJP and Left have done their respective backtrackings on identical grounds. Analysts whose political credentials are not in doubt, have repeatedly said that the Hyde Act imposes no obligation on the Indian government but is in the main, an “understanding” between the US executive and Congress consisting of provisions some of which are mandatory, some advisory and some in between according to the choice of the moment.

This, and not 123, is the major source, of the “implications” that are allegedly bothering Advani and the Left. Allegedly because these, whether or not they are sources of genuine concern, are now giving the BJP and the Left an opportunity to back off under the pretext of asking for clarifications”. Every agreement between states has “implications”, with one implication leading to another and to another and so on if one chooses to interpret it in that way. And those committed to oppose for political reasons find it a useful way for stone-walling and demanding a suspension of “operationalising” 123.

The act of Hyde and seek
There was, in the initial stages of the 123 debate, an Opposition bias in favour of giving the Hyde Act precedence over 123, as there is now in seeing it as an escape route. Precedence in the sense of expediently seeing it as a source of many fears and concerns.

Advani, for example, sees it as overriding 123 and India’s national laws, whereas in the 123 agreement with China there is a stipulation as follows: “The parties recognise, with respect to the observance of this agreement, the principle of internal law that provides that a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification of its failure to perform a treaty.”

 The Hyde Act is an internal law of the US. The “principle of international law” rules out the Act as in any way overriding or modifying America’s 123 commitments. When this point sinks in, as it now seems to be doing, opposition or the pretence of it, will fade away provided New Delhi stands firm. There will not be any “kiss of death.”

Bush’s whims and fancies
Some minds are so elastic that they are able to extend in all directions, embracing illusions, fantasies, self-serving projections, figments of the imagination, and whims and fancies that haven’t the remotest link to reality. Such, it seems, is the mind with which Bush has been endowed. Deserted by most of his principal sides. The Opposition and the majority of Americans pressing for withdrawal from Iraq. Maliki with the “kiss of death” firmly implanted on his cheek. Military experts advising against any confidence in Iraq’s foreseeable future. Trust in Bush’s word at rock bottom.

And yet, the President claims, as he did the other day, that “free Iraq is within reach”. How ill a fate has condemned the American people to suffer, as it is doing now, under a leadership that seems to have no clue to what is going on in the world. Irony has acquired a new dimension in that Manmohan Singh of all people is interacting with Bush, again of all people, on a matter of decisive importance in the relations between both countries.

Connivance on ‘Sen’-sitive acts
Of course Ronen Sen had no business to make his chicken comment but it highlighted something, no one else could do without offending the official properties. Did Sen do it deliberately with the connivance of his superiors, bringing to the forefront the emptiness, the idiocy, the hot air and general incoherence of the so-called debate on 123?

Sen is a seasoned diplomat. It is unlikely that he shot off his provocative comment without realising what he was doing and its consequences. Exasperation is the one thing diplomats are trained never to show except on occasions when displaying it can yield dividends at home and abroad. Embedded in his comment is a call for more self-confidence and courage by the nation as a whole. Note also that at a crucial moment it deflected attention from 123.