The Hindu Business Line : US insensitivity

I AM not going into the diplomatic contretemps over the refusal of visa by the US to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Narendra Modi. We can safely leave it to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to handle that with firmness and finesse.

It is paradoxical, however, that a country like the US, with its commitment to democracy, bill of rights and due process, and such great achievements to its credit in a variety of fields, should also suffer from insensitivity and intolerance, fouling up relations with other countries.

Its bad-mouthing of France and Germany and the boycott of French fries and German lager simply because those two countries had expressed themselves against the illegal invasion of Iraq still rankles in the memory of the people of those countries.

There is no explanation — other than that of a casual and insouciant approach to the susceptibilities of even friendly countries — for the previous Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, while on an official visit to India, keeping the Indian Government in the dark about conferring the status of putative NATO-member on Pakistan.

Another such episode that has faded from public consciousness dates back to the late 1960s. The American aggression against Viet Nam was at its height, with the US military ruthlessly committing unspeakable horrors against the people, including the use of napalm bombs.

The then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had earlier been invited by the US President, Lyndon Johnson, could not contain himself and spoke out against the war. Johnson not only promptly cancelled the invitation but imposed an embargo on shipments of wheat to India which was in the throes of a famine.

The habit of the US Administration and lawmakers to incorporate in their domestic laws provisions unilaterally binding other countries to its own preferred policies on pain of reprisals of various kinds is also a manifestation of the arrogance of power.

The itch at a pinch to throw its weight about has always been America's weakness. This has become worse in the absence of the restraining effect exercised by the now defunct Soviet Union.

The governing class in the US needs to remind itself that the really strong do not need to keep flailing their arms or flexing their muscles to demonstrate it.

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