By Kavita Krishnan
The Indian ruling class is striving to forge what it calls a ``strategic partnership’’ with the United States, and in this aim the major ruling-class political parties are united. The previous government -- a coalition termed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- which was in power from 1999-2004, had in the wake of 9/11 strived to prove to the US rulers that India was a more stable and suitable ally on the subcontinent for the US ``war on terror’’ than Pakistan.
The BJP-led NDA government even proposed a grandiose ``Triad Against Terrorism’’ comprising India, Israel and the US, thereby overturning decades of Indian foreign policy that had favoured the Palestinian cause. The BJP is known for its viciously anti-Muslim agenda, is notorious for the state-sponsored pogrom which killed thousands of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, and its goal is to turn secular India into a ``Hindu’’ nation. The BJP, drawing on the ``clash of civilisations’’ notion of Christians, Jews and Hindus against Muslims, spoke of a supposed ``natural affinity’’ between India – the ``Hindu homeland’’ – besieged by the terrorism of its Islamic neighbour Pakistan, and Israel – the ``Jewish homeland’’ – besieged by ``Muslim’’ Palestine’s ``terrorism’’. In May 2003, India's national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, addressing a meeting of the American Jewish Committee – a Zionist outfit – in Washington, called for a ``core, consisting of democratic societies ... which can take on international terrorism’’ – and the Indo-US-Israel axis was to constitute this ``core’’. The NDA government had even been willing to send Indian troops to assist the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq, but nationwide protests resulted in a unanimous vote in parliament against such a move.
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