PICTURE SPEAK

Padmanabhan covered the summit in Washington

On a recent trip to the United States in May, I met a senior Indian diplomat who made a very insightful observation that had not occurred to me. He said that ironical as it might sound, President George W. Bush was all for India rather than China because of his ideological commitment to freedom and democracy. The diplomat simply said, "Bush wants India to succeed", and in India we are yet to grasp the enormity of this truth.

Now it seems that this new reality has been played out during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US, and has taken concrete shape through a series of bold new initiatives. The historic nuclear pact between the two nations is a sign that a previously tumultuous relationship may finally settle down into one of mutual benefit.

The nuclear issue has always been a prickly one, ever since India's first test in Pokhran in 1974, after which the US regarded India as something of a diplomatic pariah. Contradictory it may appear, but it was India's second nuclear test, Pokhran II, that marked a turning point in Indo-US relations, even though its immediate fallout was an attempt to isolate India through imposition of economic sanctions. The then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright had advised India to "cool it ... take a deep breath and begin to climb out of the hole they have dug themselves into". However, India's economic growth and changing global realities have caused a policy shift in the US. All of this has fed into the success of the prime minister's high-profile visit, on which he was also accompanied by a high-powered group of CEOs.

Bill Clinton's presidential visit to India in March 2000 was high on colour and chemistry. But it is Bush, as the diplomat gauged, who has got down to real business and engaged with India at a variety of levels. In the post-9/11 world, the United States' relationship with Pakistan is now an accepted reality even among the most nationalistic elements of the Indian Government. For Manmohan, the visit signifies an enormous step in the arena of international diplomacy at a time when every global appearance has domestic ramifications.

This week our cover story package is an in-depth analysis of the new dynamic between India and the US in the fields of diplomacy, defence, technology and business. It was put together by Managing Editor Raj Chengappa along with New York Chief of Bureau Anil Padmanabhan, who reported the story from Washington DC. Padmanabhan says, "The world's largest democracy and its oldest have finally been able to talk on an equal footing." It couldn't have happened a moment too soon..

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