WASHINGTON: American conservatives trying to torpedo the confirmation of Senator Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for US defence secretary, have pulled out an "India card". Hagel has been accused of fingering India for its alleged disruptive role against Pakistan in Afghanistan. A shocked New Delhi, which sees Hagel as a friend, angrily denied any suggestion that India is a troublemaker in the region.
The provocative remark, in which Senator Hagel accuses New Delhi of "financing problems" for Pakistan in Afghanistan, was dredged out by a conservative publication on the eve of his confirmation hearing which his former Republican colleagues have held up largely on ideological grounds. In a 2011 speech at Oklahoma's Cameron University, Hagel says India has used Afghanistan as a second front to trouble Pakistan, according to video of the remarks obtained by Free Beacon, a conservative journal.
Free Beacon said that Hagel's remarks suggested that India has for many years sponsored terrorist activity against Pakistan in Afghanistan. But a review of the clip showed Hagel did not use the word 'terror' or 'terrorism' anywhere. Instead, he seemed to suggest India's massive financing of rebuilding which New Delhi is glad to acknowledge was causing difficulties for Pakistan, which by Afghanistan's own account, has been ceaseless in sponsoring terrorism in the country.
"India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border," Hagel says in the speech. "And you can carry that into many dimensions, the point being (that) the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been there for many, many years."
New Delhi, which is already leery of the changes in the State Department and the Pentagon, said through a spokesperson at its Washington embassy that Hagel's remarks about India creating trouble in Afghanistan are not grounded in "reality".
"Such comments attributed to Sen. Hagel, who has been a long-standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations, are contrary to the reality of India's unbounded dedication to the welfare of the Afghan people," the embassy said. "India's commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan is unwavering, and this is reflected in our significant assistance to Afghanistan in developing its economy, infrastructure and institutional capacities. Our opposition to terrorism and its safe havens in our neighbourhood is firm and unshakeable."
While conservatives appear to have used this India card in what is evidently an ideological battle to undermine his nomination, there is some concern among officials and analysts that both the state ( John Kerry) and the defence department will be helmed by Vietnam-era vets who appear to be out of sync with the current energy and dynamic of US-India ties. "It's a dated way of looking at a part of the world important to US interests in Asia," said Sadanand Dhume, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, chuckling that "those nefarious roads" built by India in Afghanistan was troubling a lot of people.
US defence secretary nominee backs Pakistan against India - The Times of India
