Clinton's Passage to India

While critics have claimed that President Clinton's trip last week to India was representative of lame-duck foreign policy pursued by the second-term president, the importance of the journey should not be dismissed. The last time an American president visited India was 1978, when socialist leader Indira Gandhi ruled the country with an iron fist. Just one year after President Carter visited, Gandhi subverted the constitution and rigged national elections, throwing the Indian political system into turmoil and leading the country into a decade of fractious ethnic and religious tensions.

Things have since changed. India is now the world's largest democracy and home to one of the most well-educated work forces in the world. The country has made great strides from the inefficient and corrupt state-run economy of the 1970s, jumping headfirst into the information technology age. Long before President Clinton showed interest, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems were already in India, building plants and using the wealth of labor to help fuel their companies. New policies of privatization, tax reduction and the lowering of staggering tariffs on foreign companies has allowed for steady economic growth over the past decade.

More importantly, India stands at a political and cultural crossroads. Soon after the country turned 50, the newly formed Indian government tested its nuclear weapons in a display of nationalism. While Western media largely blamed the conflict with rival Pakistan for the testing, India was in fact wary of the growing power of China, its neighbor to the north, with whom India fought a war in 1962. American collaboration with the Chinese (who were already supplying Pakistan with nuclear technology) seemed to defy logic to the Indians, who had already seen America support military dictatorships in Pakistan during the Cold War. As a result, Indo-American relations since the testing have been decidedly cool.

Clinton's trip to India was a symbolic gesture to mend the rift between the two countries--and it succeeded. While critics again claimed that a simple trip abroad could not resolve decades of testy relations, it did. Clinton met with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi for extensive talks on the nuclear test ban treaty; he met with business leaders in the bustling technology capital of Hyderabad; he met with Indian women to share their concerns over views of the female in traditional Indian culture. The large protest groups expected were small gatherings; the bottles thrown at the American Embassy by youths were replaced with cheers.

And yet, many questions remain. Because of its economic awakening, India faces environmental crises ranging from a dwindling safe drinking water supply to enormous pollution and overcrowding problems in its cities. Despite the technological boom, hundreds of millions of Indians still live in desperate conditions of poverty. And the situation in Kashmir has grown increasingly tense over the past year, especially after Pakistani-supported militants stepped up attempts to capture the strategic Kargil Pass.

Still, the purpose of the President's trip was not meant to address these issues primarily, but rather to open a dialogue between the two nations. While Clinton must have nurtured hopes of a foreign-policy triumph to cap his presidential career must, his trip nonetheless laid an important foundation of friendship and communication. Clinton's recognition of India as a partner--not an enemy--will go far toward building peace and stability in South Asia.