Asia Times: Burning effigies and red carpet greet Clinton


	March 21, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Burning effigies and red carpet greet Clinton
By Ranjit Dev Raj

NEW DELHI - As the pro-globalization government of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rolled out the red carpet for US President Bill Clinton on Sunday, effigies of ''corporate imperialism'' went up in flames around the capital.

At the historic arched gateway to the walled old quarter of the city, activists from various people's movements burned an Uncle Sam effigy and lit a huge bonfire made of placards reading ''Coca Cola'', ''WTO'' and ''World Bank''.

''We picked khooni darwaza (bloody gateway) because Western imperialism began with the public execution here of three Mughal princes in 1857 by the East India Company,'' said Atal Sharma, leader of the Azadi Bachao Andolan (Save Freedom Movement). ''The Clinton administration used the WTO to force India to change its patent laws and remove quantitative restrictions on imports and this will kill Indian agriculture and industry.''

According to the People Against Globalization, more than dealing on issues like non-proliferation and South Asian security, Clinton is here to promote a ''a process of de-nationalizing the economic decision-making process.''

Clinton who arrived here Sunday evening will make a day trip to Bangladesh, Monday, before starting the official five-day, India visit Tuesday morning. He will make a stopover in Pakistan after he departs India from Mumbai city on Saturday.

Although the visit is the first by a sitting US president to the tension-ridden sub-continent in 22 years, officials here have indicated that it will focus on cooperation in business and trade and information technology rather than on strategic links. Said junior Foreign Minister Ajit Kumar Panja, indicating the large contingent of businessmen in the Clinton entourage, ''There is a lot of expectation on the trade and commerce side and in information technology.'' Panja, who officially received Clinton at Indira Gandhi International Airport, indicated that India would be pressing for liberalized US visas for information technology professionals from India.

Foreign ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal said the visit will produce three broad agreements starting with a ''vision statement'' charting out the future of Indo-US relations to be signed on Tuesday. The document, to be issued following a meeting between Clinton and Vajpayee, is expected to finally wean India out of its Cold War stance which has irked US policy makers and prevented any appreciable development of trade ties. ''There will be more and more emphasis on moving away from the earlier state sponsorship to private initiative and enterprise,'' Jassal said.

Another agreement will cover cooperation in science and technology. It will facilitate cooperation in research and development and transfer of technology - areas which have been hampered since India first tested a nuclear weapon in 1971.

Following the second round of tests in May 1998, some 200 Indian corporations and institutions came under a ban stopping them from dealing with the US on suspicion of producing items with ''dual-use'' applications. Some of these sanctions were lifted on 51 Indian companies as a gesture before the visit.

In contrast to the earlier tough approach, the Clinton visit will see the setting up of a Indo-US Science and Technology Forum with a body of experts from both sides participating, said V S Ramamurthy, secretary in the department of science and technology ''With the globalization of research and development both India and the US have realized the enormous potential of using scientific research as a means of wealth creation,'' Ramamurthy said.

In spite of setbacks following the 1998 nuclear blasts, India and the US have continued cooperation in several areas of space application but most especially in the commercial use of remote sensing data from satellites . The US has looked askance at India's ambitious space program and prevailed on Russia not to part with cryogenic rocket engine technology for its satellite launching rockets on the grounds that that it would be diverted into building missiles.

A third agreement will be on cooperation in sustainable energy and clean fuel - areas which have in the past found India and the US at loggerheads at international forums over such issues as greenhouse gas emissions and carbon trading.

On Wednesday, Clinton will fly to Agra in western Uttar Pradesh state where, apart from making a visit to the famed Taj Mahal, he will address an environmental meeting. A joint-statement to be released at Agra would announce the setting up of a joint-consultative group on clean energy and the environment.

But it is Clinton's trip Friday to Hyderabad, capital of southern Andhra Pradesh state and shaping into a major information technology hub, which promises to be the most productive businesswise. He is expected to launch at Hyderabad the so-called ''Knowledge Trade Initiative'' which will foster liberal trade rules in technology and electronic commerce. According to Michael Clark, executive director of the US-India Business Council, the two countries could, under the initiative, work together in ''pioneering concepts for a new legal framework and look at implications and make recommendations.''

Before flying out of India and on to Islamabad, Clinton will address a meeting of India's top business leaders at the port city of Mumbai, capital of western Maharashtra state where he is expected to further push the trade and commerce agenda.

It is little wonder then that activist groups and people's movements led by the Azadi Bachao Andolan have been organizing a program of protests and demonstrations in the capital and elsewhere, defying police bans. ''The vision statement to be signed by the two governments reflects the interests of global corporations and financial institutions to the exclusion of those of the people,'' said People Against Globalization spokesperson Vandana Shiva.

Opposition to the Clinton visit has also come from communist parties in the Left Front which rules southern Kerala state and West Bengal and which has called for the observance of a nation-wide day of protest on Monday.

Lawmakers from the left parties will also boycott a joint-session of the upper and lower houses of parliament scheduled to be addressed by Clinton on Wednesday.

(Inter Press Service)

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