MANIPAL, India — U.S. diplomats have lorded
it over the world's "Untermenschen," or inferior people, for so long
that the latter have come to regard even the more obvious and offensive forms
of condescension and patronizing behavior as a compliment.
Ever since the United States was informed
on Oct. 21 by India that domestic political difficulties were hampering the
implementation of the George Bush-Manmohan Singh nuclear deal, a battalion of
U.S. officials and wannabe officials have been lecturing India almost daily on
what they consider to be the core attributes of a "responsible" and
"mature" power -- which is to fulfill the wishes of the United States
in every detail. Any deviation from this would be evidence of an inability to
be ranked worthy of the support of the "Big Boys" -- presumably
Blairite Britain, Sarkozhian France and Merkellian Germany, who amble behind
the United States on key issues.
After being informed a week ago that the
next steps in finalizing the nuclear deal were negotiating a safeguards
agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers
Group on transfer of civilian technology, France was the first of the Big Boys
to kick in, warning that any agreement with it was conditional on the
Bush-Singh agreement being signed first.
Next followed Germany, repeating its
insistence that India sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile
Materials Cutoff Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons power before Berlin would
agree to join the bandwagon. Unusually -- and wisely -- Britain has kept
silent, unlike the United States, which has been issuing a stream of
statements, warning that placing the deal in cold storage would severely impact
relations with Washington.
