Washington Launches ‘Psy-war’ In Peace Bid For South Asia

[Guest guest]

Washington Launches `Psy-war' In Peace Bid For South Asia

 

Rohit Bansal

 

New Delhi, May 31: The big one has come sooner than expected. All US

citizens, with the exception of those specifically asked to stay,

have been told to move out of India, by the first available means.

 

In the suddenness of the decision hangs the tale: an increasingly

anxious Washington wanting to tighten the screws on India, and doing

everything it can to force New Delhi to back off from its eye ball-

to-eye ball stand off with Islamabad. The sub text is clear. That

here on, the hit your markets take is your business, so back off or

suffer a massive attrition in global investor sentiment.

 

"I don't want to go," complained a USG (government) staffer who has

an enduring engagement with India's infrastructure sector, "but the

orders are: get out, unless you are told to stay". The embassy, he

said, has erected `24/7' travel desks to facilitate the evacuation

(there are no signs of special flights yet) of some 60,000 American

citizens in India. Also, embassy staff complaining of insufficient

time to pack up have been told that `24/7' security guards will

watch their belongings. The message is to get out by the first

available means. The US chef de mission is holding an operational

meeting in the embassy at 10 on Saturday morning.

 

The US posturing, expectedly backed up by London and Auckland

already, is ahead of coercive diplomacy coming India's way.

Increasingly convinced of the peace act being enacted by Pak

president Pervez Musharraf, the Bush administration is sending

deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and defence secretary Don

Rumsfeld to nudge India to back off. Close on the heels of a massive

evacuation of US staff and citizens, New Delhi will feel the pincer

like seldom before, because backing off under Washington's diktat

may be the last thing the government can sell politically.

 

US envoy Robert Blackwill has been a key actor in Friday's sudden

drama. In a long e-mail on May 27, Blackwill convened a `town hall

meeting' to apprise USG staff and their families about what "the

crisis" entailed. He appended several pages of alarmist statements

emanating from Washington. At 5 pm, Blackwill flashed another "Hi

Folks" e-mail fore-warning on a state department announcement on the

evacuation. In the `town meeting' all questions led to the same

grave reply: an unambiguous, `leave right now'. Someone asked

whether all this is because of an imminent nuclear war. Blackwill

confirmed that "statements in the last two-three days have played

their part".