The US's new man with a mission in
India By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - President George W Bush's "intention
to nominate" Dr David Mulford, a well-known banker and a
former Treasury Department official, as the new United
States envoy to India has ended a period of uncertainty
over the appointment.
The US ambassador to India
is one of the most high profile posts in the country,
with previous incumbents such as the recently-departed
Robert Blackwill and Frank Wisner playing leadership
roles in steering the often vexed India-US relationship.
The post fell vacant in August this year after the
abrupt departure of Blackwill amid much speculation of
inside politics in top US administration circles.
Blackwill returned to the US after being drafted into
the White House National Security Council, although he
had announced early in the year that he was returning to
teach at Harvard.
The Bush administration has
mulled over filling the vacancy for the past few months,
with Mulford, known to be close to the Bush father-son
duo and a Republican insider, finally being picked for
the job.
According to analysts in India,
Mulford, as chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston
International and a former under secretary of Treasury
in the first Bush administration, is expected to
leverage the political-strategic relationship in key
economic terms. They further add that Mulford belongs to
Washington's power elite that includes men like Henry
Kissinger, James Baker and Frank Carlucci, with his
appointment proof that Bush retains a "personal, direct"
interest in the US's relationship with India.
But all is not clear and above board as it
appears. There has been some disquiet in both US and
Indian circles about the nomination. According to
reports, plenty of questions are being asked in
Washington's political circles, such as why he would
want to go to New Delhi for what could be just a
one-year term. Mulford will have a clear one-year term
to take things forward before Americans go to the
presidential polls (in November 2004). If Bush is
re-elected, Mulford might stay on. If he is defeated,
then the convention is for all US envoys to send in
their resignations so that the new president can
nominate his own choices or re-appoint them until
further notice.
But there are deeper voices of
discontent. There are stories linking the
ambassador-nominee to a scandal involving Banco
Commercial, the largest private bank in Uruguay.
Although the stories do not implicate Mulford in person
in any way, it seems that he had to resign from the
board as a representative of Credit Suisse after others
on that board were accused of fraud and money
laundering.
Reports say that Congressional
staffers are also looking into reports that Credit
Suisse has been banned by regulators from practicing in
India due to price-fixing during his watch. In his
response to an "ethics disclosure form", Mulford is
reported to have said that he could not possibly be
aware of everything that was happening in Credit
Suisse's India operations.
New Delhi, too, is
not entirely thrilled about Mulford's nomination,
although it did not convey any signals of displeasure
and returned an agreement as soon as the Bush
administration suggested his name. As one commentator
put it, the Indian attitude appears to be: Better any
ambassador than no ambassador at all.
Mulford's
name, according to reports, came up after consultations
between "41 and 43" - a reference to the father and son
presidents of the US. Despite all the reservations, it
is unlikely that Mulford's nomination will be derailed.
But the haste with which the White House is rushing
through the nomination has not gone down too well with
the Senate.
There are also reasons, though, for
India to be happy about the nomination. Mulford has
given plenty of indications that he is going to be
active on the economic front, saying that is one of the
reasons he is coming to India. Asked about the trade
imbalance between the two countries - the US now exports
less to India than it imports - Mulford counseled
patience, saying "sometimes it takes time to even up the
tally".
"I think what we'll find is that if we
press these issues relentlessly, access to their
markets, and secondly, access to foreign direct
investments, I think we'll have some success," he said.
There have been a few more statements by Mulford
that should please New Delhi. Mulford has said that the
US strongly supports India in its battle against
terrorism, just as India has supported the US. He said
the India-Pakistan dispute is "something which is very
much between the two countries themselves", and he did
not think that the US should insert itself as the
manager or mediator or referee for the resolution of
this problem. About the US's attitude towards India's
nuclear program, Mulford said, "Although this was
contrary to our policies and objectives and something
that the United States is not happy with, it's clearly
reality. And we have, I think, come to accept that it's
reality," he added.
The task ahead for Mulford
is not going to be easy. The new envoy will embark on
his role at a time when India-US ties have been
undergoing periods of highs accompanied by equal lows.
The Bush administration has not taken kindly to India's
intransigent stand of not sending troops to Iraq,
despite several behind-the-scene promises of give and
take. There is also pique over the breakdown of the
trade talks at Cancun, where India took a leading role
in fighting the cause of less developed countries.
Then there is a degree of disquiet at the manner
in which India continues to chart its own foreign policy
prerogatives, including re-forging ties with Iran and
China, countries Washington views with suspicion. In the
latest instance, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
visited Syria within a week of the US Senate voting to
impose diplomatic and economic sanctions against
Damascus, accusing it of being a platform for terrorism.
On its part, India continues to be irritated
with Washington for not paying heed to what is seen here
as the cauldron of terrorism - Pakistan. There is
increasing cynicism among Indian officials that the Bush
administration has not heeded its warning about the
increasingly fundamentalist and militarist Pakistan, as
well as the rampant jihadi culture that has taken root
there under the patronage of the country's military
rulers. New Delhi is also watching with dismay
Washington trying to accommodate in Afghanistan what it
believes is a "moderate Taliban" to extricate itself
from the situation there. Indian diplomats believe such
a move will just reintroduce Pakistan and its proxies
into Afghanistan.
All in all, the next year is
not going to be an easy ride for Mulford.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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Nov 26, 2003
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Central, Hong Kong
The US ambassador to India
is one of the most high profile posts in the country,
with previous incumbents such as the recently-departed
Robert Blackwill and Frank Wisner playing leadership
roles in steering the often vexed India-US relationship.
The post fell vacant in August this year after the
abrupt departure of Blackwill amid much speculation of
inside politics in top US administration circles.
Blackwill returned to the US after being drafted into
the White House National Security Council, although he
had announced early in the year that he was returning to
teach at Harvard. 
