From the Jan 5 2005 World Media Watch...
3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jan. 4, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GA05Df01.htmlUS 'SPYING' RAISES INDIAN HACKLES
By Sultan Shahin
NEW DELHI - India's defense establishment is sending distress signals to sections of the country's media over what it considers inordinate United States interest in the affairs of India's sensitive, insurgency-infested northeast. Military officials are deeply unhappy over the ever-growing access US diplomats and military personnel are getting to disturbed areas in the region.
An Asia Times Online investigation has revealed that the disquiet is almost a decade old, though it has grown exponentially since US ambassador to India Robert Mulford wrote to the chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland directly offering help in counter-insurgency operations in the wake of terrorist violence in October, 2004. He did not bother to go through the proper channels; that is, through the ministry of external affairs. This raised a lot of questions and controversies in the media; the central government, too, was not happy about it. But the matter rests there, and no further explanations have emerged as to why the US ambassador chose to go over the heads of the central government.
(SNIP)
But why should India be afraid of US military or diplomatic personnel visiting the northeast? Insisting on anonymity, a former brigadier who is a member of several expert committees advising the government at various levels explained the issue to Asia Times Online: "India is not an ally of the US, despite all the talk of India and the US being natural allies and so on. Also, we are making nukes, while the US is spending at least a couple of billion dollars annually in countering nuclear proliferation. They clearly don't like India being or remaining a nuclear power. This means we have essentially an adversarial relationship. Both countries may be sincere in seeking to better ties at various levels; yet this essential fact remains and we have to always keep this in mind. A large portion of the billions invested in counter-proliferation since 1995 has been earmarked for India."
But what could visiting US personnel do that would amount to a breach of Indian security? He explained further: "They could leave behind unmanned sensors in strategic locations. They need to find out locations of our various military installations. And yes, they do need to physically verify on the ground what they see from their satellites. There is no question that these people have been mapping these areas. Visits and close interaction with military personnel gives them the opportunity for subversion of our personnel. They are always on the lookout for human intelligence; after all there is a limit to how far electronic intelligence can go. They have to try and work out our nuclear doctrine. They need to get to know where our raw materials are coming from and where our bombs are being made. They need to know our deployment areas. There are sensitive locations called red areas that they should not see. We draw inner lines where even Indian citizens would not be allowed; but if Americans are left alone in the nearby areas, and given the slavish mentality of many Indians towards the white complexion of our former colonial masters, who knows where they might reach."
Another point he made was that while the US military is desperate to understand Indian military doctrines and functioning as decades of Cold War deprived them of close interaction, Indians don't have a reciprocal need as "the Americans are an open book". This why many in the military believe that close interaction between the two militaries is more advantageous to the US than it is to India. In any case, India doesn't have global ambitions and knowledge of US doctrines or vulnerabilities is not much use to it. On the other hand, acquainting the US with its own strong points and vulnerabilities might some day prove costly to India, as no one knows where America's ambition of world domination would lead it, he added.
One retired major-general, however, tried to rationalize both the US need to access the sensitive, insurgency infested northeast and the government of India's compulsion to allow it to do so. For instance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has just approved a US$2.6 billion development package partly from the US for two restive northeastern states, Assam and Manipur. "You cannot receive such large development assistance packages from a country and restrict its personnel from visiting those areas for whom the financial package is meant. They have to oversee how the fund is being utilized. Even if this is a ruse and they are going for ulterior purposes, there is not much the government can do about it."
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