People's Democracy

Obnoxious & Dangerous Servility

Of Vajpayee Govt

SOME of the newspapers reported on September 30 that a team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in Hyderabad to interrogate the families of two suspects arrested in the United States in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks. These reports did not evoke any reaction from the media nor political circles. No one found anything unusual in a team of the American FBI visiting an Indian city and directly conducting investigations, including the interrogation of Indian citizens. The only exception was the CPI(M), whose Andhra Pradesh state secretary in a press conference questioned how the FBI was allowed to do this.

According to press reports, the FBI agents with the cooperation of the Central Intelligence Bureau (IB) questioned the families of Ayub Ali Khan and Mohd. Jaweed Asmath, who were arrested from a train in the United States with forged papers. According to some of the reports, the city police were not approached for assistance by the FBI team to conduct its investigations. They came to know about it only later. Presumably, the FBI acted through the IB, which is a central body.

WHO GAVE PERMISSION?

This raises serious questions about how a foreign police agency could directly question Indian citizens and make investigations about their background. One can understand the need to investigate persons of Indian origin, who are suspected of links with the terrorist attacks in the US. The appropriate way to do this would have been for the FBI to contact their Indian counterparts and through them to approach the Hyderabad police for assistance. Any interrogation of persons in Hyderabad can be done, on behalf of the FBI, only with the participation and presence of the local police authorities.

So far, according to the reports appearing in the press, nothing has been found to establish any link between the two Hyderabadis and the September 11 hijackers. The local police had already lodged cases regarding their procuring false passports, a common practice among those who illegally emigrate to the US.

That the FBI has now got a carte blanche to go anywhere in India and interrogate Indian citizens is a matter of grave concern. The BJP-led government is directly responsible for this gross violation of national sovereignty and legal norms. In its anxiety to please the Americans, our own police and security agencies have been downgraded.

It should be recalled that it was the Vajpayee government that allowed the FBI to open an office in New Delhi. The BJP leadership brushed aside strong opposition to such a move and the FBI set up its office here just over a year ago. It is not clear whether the local FBI agent stationed in New Delhi alone went to Hyderabad, or whether any FBI personnel came from the US.

What is in question here is not the Indian authorities complying with any legitimate request for investigations into the links with the terrorist attack in the US. What is objectionable is that the Vajpayee government has surrendered its sovereign rights on how to deal with such requests coming from abroad.

CONTRAST WITH UK

Around the same time that the FBI was undertaking these enquiries in Hyderabad, the FBI was involved in a similar operation in Britain. An Algerian pilot, Lotfi Raissi, based in Britain, was arrested on September 21, for links with some of the hijackers in the September 11 attack. It was reported by The Guardian of September 29 that, "FBI agents flew to London to assist Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, though they did not speak to Mr. Raissi directly". Since there are more links between the Algerian pilot and the hijackers, extradition proceedings have been initiated to extradite him to the US. The investigations, including the questioning of the suspect, was undertaken by the British police. The FBI did not directly conduct any enquiries.

Britain is the closest ally of the United States. Yet, the British authorities have shown greater regard for their sovereign rights than the craven lot who run the Indian government.

Piece by piece, step by step, the Vajpayee government is compromising the sovereign jurisdictional authority of the Indian state, in its desperate quest for US recognition.

A week after the September 11 events, US Ambassador Robert Blackwill had a meeting with the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sushil Kumar, who is also the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The purpose of this meeting was obviously to discuss how the Indian armed forces could be involved in the proposed American military operations.

By this Jaswant Singh, who is both the Defence and External Affairs minister, has ceded another right to the Americans -- the US envoy can directly meet the Chiefs of Indian armed forces to discuss military plans. In the Indian set-up, it is the Defence and External Affairs ministries which should be dealing with such matters. It would be interesting to know how this meeting was set up, whether it was at the instance of the Indian government or the Americans? Given the overeagerness of the Vajpayee government to join America’s war, it is likely that the Ambassador was told to meet the Indian Naval Chief.

That India is willing to offer naval port facilities to the US has now been confirmed. The Blackwill meeting with Admiral Sushil Kumar was to discuss what sort of facilities the Indian Navy could offer to US naval forces. The naval port facilities on the West Coast were offered for the use of the US forces.

A US Embassy spokesman confirmed that the US had sought information about facilities at the Indian naval bases. Now that the war against Afghanistan has begun, the Vajpayee government is still hoping that the US will use the Indian port facilities. The way the FBI team's visit to Hyderabad and the US Ambassador's meeting with the Naval Chief was arranged are ample indication of just how much the Vajpayee government already considers itself to be a junior satrap of the Americans.