COVER STORY

Going by tradition

VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN

ANTAGONISTIC responses in some sections of the media to President K.R. Narayanan's banquet speech in honour of President Clinton suggested that he had deviated from custom and was discourteous to the visiting head of state. The fallaciousness of this sug gestion becomes evident from an elementary study of speeches made on such occasions by Narayanan's predecessors in office. The Records of the ceremonial receptions accorded to visiting dignitaries show that the tradition set by Indian Presidents is one o f plain-speaking and uncompromising commitment to national interests.

The speeches made by Vice-President M. Hidayatullah and President N. Sanjeeva Reddy during the visits of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter are cases in point. Both visits took place during the height of the Cold War, when the U.S. disapproved of India's foreign policy thrust towards non-alignment. Yet both the Indian Presidents minced no words in affirming the country's adherence to this aspect of its foreign policy.

LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS
Clinton returns a toast to
K.R. Narayanan at the state banquet
hosted in his honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Welcoming President Nixon on July 31, 1969, Hidayatullah praised the achievements of the U.S., including the success of its space programme, which was reflected in the voyage to the moon. He also thanked the U.S. for giving "economic aid and cooperation" to "many countries in this region". He added: "We ourselves have received much assistance from your country, for which we are grateful." However, he said forcefully: "Our policy of non-alignment and peaceful co-existence is not a mere slogan but stems f rom our history, traditions and beliefs and from our determination to remain independent and to exist in friendship and peace with others. As Jawaharlal Nehru said, our freedom and independence are but a part of freedom and independence of nations."

He added: "The discontent of a deprived and underprivileged people is a more potent danger than any that the enemy can devise... There are tensions both national and international which arise from basic factors - economic, social and political. They are not amenable to simple explanations of power politics and power vacuum."

Making an indirect reference to the militarist dimensions of the Cold War, Hidayatullah said: "A military solution cannot remove the main causes of weaknesses and tension. The emphasis must, therefore, shift from a military solution to peaceful settlemen t, to economic and social development, so that people may have adequate food and shelter, health and education, employment and leisure, with peace and freedom."

Sanjeeva Reddy was even more forthright when President Carter visited India in January 1978. He made it clear at the very outset of his banquet speech that "notwithstanding the ideals we share, we have varied emphasis in our priorities and in our interna tional preoccupations... Paradoxically, the very adherence to similar political systems has at times exaggerated our misunderstandings and blurred our affinities." He pointed out: "Ideologies are in the process of being domesticated and pluralism amongst nations is seen as a factor of stability rather than a threat to international peace."

Sanjeeva Reddy, like Hidayatullah, underlined India's commitment to non-alignment. He said that "the prospect of a nuclear war has given a new meaning to the search for peace on earth" and that "non-alignment is much less misunderstood". "If there is bi- polarity today, it is between forces seeking stability and cooperation and those which seek to obstruct orderly and progressive solutions to the world problems. The growing chasm between the developing and the developed world may in the future lead to in creasing dangerous tensions. The world of the rich and the poor face a common doom if we cannot act together to protect earth, the air and waters from plunder and pollution." No hue and cry was raised at that time about such friendly and yet stern advice .

The media have construed President Narayanan's reference to the process of globalisation and in that context the observation by an African statesman who said that "the facfact that the world is a global village does not mean it will be run by one village headman" as an adverse comment on the visiting President and a discourteous anti-American statement.

Narayanan was quoting from a speech made in India by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on January 25. Obasanjo was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations. No section of the media at that time thought Obasanjo's observation was anti-American.

Strange are the ways of servility.