The Hindu Business Line : Controversy over naval exercises

It is a moot point whether any significant political gains can be made from the protests organised by the Left parties over the naval exercises undertaken by India jointly with Australia, Japan, Singapore and the US in the Bay of Bengal on September 4-9. For one thing, they are already into the second day, and it is doubtful how far the two jathas — starting from Chennai and Kolkata and ending in Vishakapatnam — over something that is a fait accompli can evoke and hold public interest..

For another, the public is getting a bit blasé about the Left parties constantly hogging media and public space on some pretext or the other. The value of any campaign is only when it is sparingly used as an instrument of public action.

For a third, the Left parties are engaged in a very well-conceived effort on the really worthwhile cause of rousing public awareness of the demerits of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Launching yet another movement in the midst of it is bound to prove a distraction. Particularly since the naval exercises are only of marginal importance and not as close to the heart of the Indian polity as the nuclear deal.

Starting from 1995, there have been 12 such exercises, with the participation on different occasions of the Navies of Britain, China, France, Russia and Sri Lanka. They cannot also be legitimately said to impinge on national security as they are being held in the open sea, to which every nation has lawful access.

In picking on the current naval exercises, the Left parties are laying themselves open to the charge of double standards as well.

Only in March this year, the Indian and Chinese Navies had completed the advanced spadework of search and rescue operations at various ports for full-fledged joint exercises. The Left parties showed no signs of being exercised over them at the time.

However, it is not that their stand is entirely devoid of justification. Beginning from the Korean war to the quarter-century long excommunication of the People’s Republic of China from the councils of world bodies, from the crimes against humanity in Viet Nam to the murders of Salvador Allende and Patrick Lumumba and from the attempted murder of Fidel Castro to the occupation of Iraq peddling a pack of lies, the US has been in the habit of misusing its military and monetary might as the self-centred and self-appointed arbiter of other nations’ behaviour and conduct.

Pursuit of global hegemony

Its declared policies giving to itself the rights of pre-emptive strikes and regime change in the unilateral exercise of its own judgment and discretion as to what affects its pursuit of global hegemony still hold the field and have not been explicitly given up. Where its designs and interests are involved, today’s friends can turn into tomorrow’s enemies, and vice-versa, regardless of whether they are military dictatorships or proven democracies.

It certainly goes against the grain of anyone who upholds values in international relations to be part of military exercises with a nation of such a disposition, especially when the US aircraft carriers and the nuclear-powered submarine have been instrumental in carrying out the illegal operations against Iraq.

It should also be remembered that the three other participants — Australia, Japan and Singapore — are, coincidentally or otherwise, yoked to the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) promoted by the US to intercept ships suspected of carrying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons on the high seas.

The exercises, coming at this time, are apt to signal India being drawn into the PSI. Yes, the Left is right to protest, but not in such a high-voltage manner, at such expense of energy and resources.

B. S. RAGHAVAN