Indian press considers Bush visit

As George Bush flies to Delhi to become only the fifth US president to visit India, many Indian papers agree that Indo-US ties have never seemed stronger and that Mr Bush is a friend of India.

Indian and US officials are hoping to seal an accord on nuclear energy cooperation before Mr Bush leaves India, but disagreements over the separation of India's nuclear programme into civilian and military facilities have held up the talks.

While several papers demand that India not compromise on its military nuclear capabilities for the sake of better ties with the US, a few commentators warn that failure to reach an agreement would harm the wider relationship.

Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, on the other hand, is certain that Mr Bush is not welcome in India.

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Scaremongering regarding a nuclear deal between India and the US is not confined to retired scientists and bureaucrats, or the Indian left.

Influential sections of the US and UK press have taken up the refrain that a deal would pull the plug on nuclear non-proliferation and undermine western interests. This criticism does not take into account [that] India has, over the last four decades, attained expertise in many nuclear fuel cycles, but its record on non-proliferation is unimpeachable.

It has observed the non-proliferation regime in spirit while not signing on to the letter, which is a lot better than some NPT [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] signatories. Instead of viewing India through a singular and stereotypical grid and consigning it to the doghouse, its impeccable record in non-proliferation, coupled with the fact that it is the largest democracy in the world, should be reason enough to incorporate it into the global nuclear order.

President Bush appears to be ahead of the curve in recognising this.

Lalit Mansingh in INDIA TODAY

[Bush's] visit will be far more consequential for India than that of any previous US president. There has been no greater friend of India in the history of the White House.

Placing conventional wisdom on its head, he made India the centrepiece of his "Transformational Diplomacy". India is seen by him not only as a potential global power, but a principal strategic partner of the US.

Whether the Bush visit will be perceived as a success or otherwise, will depend on the outcome of the nuclear deal. An impasse on this issue will, apart from the loss of face for both Manmohan Singh and Bush, create a ripple effect on Indo-US ties.

Jaithirth Rao in THE INDIAN EXPRESS

It is equally important to pay attention to the fact that, almost instinctively, [Bush] is on our side on a variety of issues, be it the approach to Islamist terrorism or the approach to nuclear power as a viable, even desirable energy source for the world.

He has maintained a clear distance from ecology fundamentalists who would deny India nuclear fuel and at the same time hector us not to burn high-sulphur coal. How exactly are we supposed to provide for an energy-starved population who do not aspire to remain permanently poor?

Raj Chengappa in INDIA TODAY

Experts are convinced that if the nuke deal does not come through it would be, in the words of KS Bajpai, a former Indian ambassador to the US, "a major dampener.

"It would signal triumph for the nuclear diehards in India and the NPT ayatollahs in the US. The momentum will go out of Indo-US relations and it will take a long time to regain it". The hour of reckoning is nigh.

INQUILAB (Urdu-language)

Whatever advantage Washington reaps is all due to disarray among [other nations].

Whenever the Indian government kept in mind its so-called interests or compromised with independence of its foreign policy, it invited troubles.

The trouble that Dr Manmohan Singh earned in July 2005 by supporting the idea of separating civilian and military nuclear facilities can be got rid of only one way: Say "No". And when many countries including India say "No" to US demands, Washington will realise its true worth.

AKALI PATRIKA (Punjabi-language)

India's nuclear and foreign policies have, so far, been independent. Long-term national interests cannot be sacrificed for the sake of any such agreement.

Bush wants that India confine the use of its nuclear expertise to the civilian sector. Is that not interference with India's autonomy with regard to its nuclear policy? Has the US an exclusive right to manufacture nuclear weapons? India must exhibit firmness during Bush's visit.

Harish Khare in THE HINDU

Has India acquired enough collective self-assurance to accept Mr Bush's hand of friendship, do a nuclear deal with him without getting sucked into Washington's imperial misadventures across the globe?

The India-US relationship cannot easily graduate into a strategic jugalbandhi [instrumental duet] without all shades of Indian nationalism feeling comfortable with Washington's global agenda. This is as much to do with the churning in a changing India as with the contentions within the minuscule strategic community.

The Bush visit can at best help decide the limited debate over the nuclear deal, but the larger project of the India-US relationship will remain contingent upon our internal elan.

Salman Haidar in THE TIMES OF INDIA

Ultimately, Bush's visit is not to be measured by the formal agreements it promotes, even the nuclear agreement. More significant than agreements will be the visit itself, for it can take the bilateral connection to the next level and induce an important change of perception about how the two countries can relate to each other. The visit can give substance to Bush's remark that India and US are natural partners.

Arundhati Roy in THE HINDU

On 2 March, Bush will be taken to visit [Mahatma] Gandhi's memorial in Rajghat. He's by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the Indian government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe - no shrinking violet himself.)

But when George Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone, millions of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood on the memory of Gandhi.

The government, the police and the corporate press will do everything they can to minimise the extent of our outrage. Nothing the Happynews Papers say can change the fact that all over India from the biggest cities to the smallest villages, in public places and private homes - George W. Bush, world nightmare incarnate, is just not welcome.

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