Who 'surrendered’ to the US? That's the wrong question |
Last week, a major debate erupted over an observation of mine about oil imports from Iran and Russia at a conference in Washington DC. I was wrong on the facts about Russia because India never stopped importing oil from that country. I promptly apologised. Yet, the Congress Party used my observation to loudly reiterate its allegation that the Indian government had “surrendered” before the US. This is the pot calling the kettle black.
The compression of oil imports from Iran had happened during the UPA-2 regime. Until 2010, Iran was India’s second-largest oil supplier, accounting for almost 15 per cent of total imports. But in 2012, the Obama administration came out with the NDAA Act and threatened India with sanctions if it didn’t stop buying oil from Iran. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a special visit to India to force Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fall in line. Singh succumbed to US pressure by reducing oil imports from Iran to less than 5 per cent. India also suspended oil shipments from Libya and Sudan. Unlike the churlish leadership of the Congress today, the mature BJP leadership did not call Manmohan Singh “Surrender Singh”. It understood the geopolitical complexities and reacted with restraint.
The reaction to my observation came not only from........