Republicans & Us

Thursday, December 14th, 2006 Blog / Commentary by IARC

Republicans & Us
The Indian American Magazine

http://www.theindianamerican.com/

November – December 2006
Dr. R. Vijayanagar

I was standing on the South Lawn of the White House on a hot, July day during the summer of 2005. I was surrounded by hundreds of Indian Americans of every faith from around the country. Some were Democrats, others were Republicans, and still others were Independents. We watched President George W. Bush welcome Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his historic official visit to America. Later that evening, I was humbled and honored to be part of the state dinner held in the East Room of the White House hosted by the President and First Lady Laura Bush for Prime Minister Singh and his wife Mrs. Gursharan Kaur. During the visit, President Bush and Prime Minister Singh entered the world’s two largest democracies into a mutually beneficial pact, the U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement.
It was only after I returned home did I fully appreciate that we had finally arrived as a community in American politics and that India had truly arrived as an emerging global player. The civilian nuclear agreement will forever change U.S.-India relations and permanently cement the ties between our countries. We have moved past the hollow rhetoric we witnessed during the Clinton Administration when it comes to U.S.-India relations. We must give credit to President Bush and the Republican Party for this.
This is a fact that is recognized by most Indian Americans. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice first told President Bush about the future importance of India, when he was still Governor of Texas in 1999. Since then, she and the President have been determined to bring to fruition their vision of India being a true strategic partner for America in Asia. However, the only way to do this, would be to undertake a radical departure from the status quo, and it would entail tackling a touchy subject for both nations: India’s nuclear status.
For nearly three decades, India was trapped in nonproliferation limbo. Indian officials rightly bristled at the lecturing from the Clinton Administration on its nuclear arsenal. With China as a nuclear power, and its proliferation along with North Korea to Pakistan of sensitive nuclear technologies, it was insulting for President Clinton to insist on peace-seeking India to voluntarily disarm itself with no similar demands on its overly aggressive neighbors. Even worse, we later discovered Dr. A. Q. Khan was actively involved in the black-market industry of nuclear proliferation, much of which began during Clinton’s watch. It was also during this time not coincidentally that thousands of madrassas sprung up in Pakistan and terrorism in Kashmir intensified.
What President Bush and Dr. Rice realized, was that in order to change our relationship with India, we had to change our mindset on nonproliferation. The President took on the nonproliferation lobby and their allies in the Democrat Party, seeking a change in U.S. laws, to permit U.S. trade with India for peaceful civilian nuclear technology. This agreement will benefit both countries, create new jobs, and gives India the chance to bring consistency in its energy production.
The opposition to this agreement from the Democrats was fierce. A number of House Democrats cosigned a letter to their minority leader, the ultra-left liberal Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressing their opposition to this legislation. No Democrats cosponsored the original version of this bill in the Senate; all ten cosponsors were Republicans (S. 2429). The majority of cosponsors in the House for the original bill (H.R. 4974) and the revised bill that passed the House (H.R. 5682) were Republicans. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced a poison pill amendment intended to kill the bill during Senate mark-up, and five Democrats introduced killer amendments during the House mark-up; all these amendments were successfully defeated. This year, former Democrat President Jimmy Carter penned an op-ed on March 29 against the legislation in the Washington Post entitled “A Dangerous Deal With India.” U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced H. Con. Res. 318, which expresses opposition to the legislation; this bill was cosponsored by 21 Democrats. Rep. Markey also wrote an op-ed on April 24 in Roll Call called “India Deal Is a Nonproliferation Loss.” Former Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) wrote in opposition to the U.S.-India nuclear agreement in a May 24 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Nuclear Pig in a Poke.” U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), a member of the House International Relations Committee, opposed the agreement in a commentary published in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 25, the day before the floor vote, entitled “Exception should not be the rule for India nuclear deal.”
On the House floor, the Democrat opposition only grew fiercer. H. Res. 947, the rule to bring up consideration of H.R. 5682 was opposed by 110 Democrats. A poison pill amendment introduced by U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) was supported by 129 Democrats. Another killer amendment by U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) was supported by 146 Democrats. The motion to recommit the bill back to committee, a procedural move designed to kill legislation, was supported by 169 Democrats led by Pelosi. All procedural and amendment votes to eviscerate this legislation were supported by a clear majority of House Democrats and defeated by House Republicans.
When Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate, minority leader Harry Reid objected. Senator Frist gave the Democrats 4 amendments, but Senator Reid wanted unlimited amendments. Senate Democrats wanted to do what they couldn’t achieve in the House: kill the bill with amendments. The Democrats were desperate to filibuster the bill to prevent President Bush from having a major foreign policy victory.
President Bush appointed more Indian Americans to his Administration than any other President in history. The White House has officially commemorated Diwali for fours consecutive years and hosted an official celebration on the 400th anniversary of the installation of the Sikh Holy scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, in the Golden Temple. These events never occurred under any other President. He has aggressively fought congressional Democrats and the nonproliferation lobby to push the civilian nuclear legislation through Congress.
On November 7, you will be faced with two choices: voting for a Party that supports us, or voting for a Party that actively works against our interests. It’s your choice.
Dr. Raghavendra Vijayanagar is the Founder & Chairman of the IARC.