INDIAN LAWMAKERS MISSING MESSAGE ON US-INDIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 003275

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2015
TAGS: PREL MASS PARM KNNP PK CH IN NSSP US
SUBJECT: INDIAN LAWMAKERS MISSING MESSAGE ON US-INDIA

Classified By: Charge Robert O. Blake, Jr., for Reasons 1.4 (B, D)


1. (C) Summary: During an Indo-US Parliamentary Forum (IUPF)
gathering on April 27, Indian lawmakers were upbeat about
US-India relations, but were surprisingly uninformed about
key details of the initiatives underway to make the strategic
partnership a reality. Suggesting that the positive impact
of Dr. Rice's March 16 visit had been overshadowed by the
"watershed" visits of President Musharraf and Chinese PM Wen,
several went so far as to suggest that the India-China
agreement on border issues was of greater long-range
strategic import than the US initiatives. They also insisted
-- despite recent Administration statements -- that a
perception of "hyphenation" continues to surround the popular
Indian view of U.S. policy towards New Delhi and Islamabad.
The MPs also did not understand the extent, scope and
long-range impact of the proposed F-16/F-18 offer. The group
urged that more be done to demonstrate the US-India
transformation to the broad Indian public. The Mission will
ramp up its outreach to MPs beyond the IUPF members to
counter these misperceptions and explain the March 25
initiatives. End Summary.


2. (C) Opening the meeting with IUPF member MPs, the Charge
highlighted the new peak in US-India relations following Dr.
Rice's March 16 visit to New Delhi. Emphasizing the
significance of the March 25 South Asia Initiative in terms
of strategic, civil nuclear, civil space, and military
cooperation, the Charge sought feedback from the MPs
regarding how well this message had been received and
understood in the Parliament and more broadly in India.


3. (C) During the 2 hour freewheeling discussion that
followed, the MPs from across the political spectrum were
unanimous in the view that while they and other IUPF members
were much more informed about the current state of US-India
relations and recognized and appreciated the significant
transformation that has taken place in the last several
years, this was not the case for other MPs and the Indian
public at large.


4. (C) The MPs observed a tendency among their
Parliamentarian colleagues and the broader Indian public to
see progress on India-China, primarily as evidenced by the
recent progress achieved on Sikkim and the border principles
agreement during the Wen visit, as the most significant
foreign policy achievement in recent months. As one MP
noted, Wen "captured the popular imagination" while the US
message remains "flat". Maintaining that the importance of
the USG proposal to co-produce F-16/F-18s with India had also
been lost on the Parliament and the Indian public because the
"reciprocal" US offer of F-16s to Pakistan, the MPs observed
that the extensive benefits contained in the US offer were
widely unrecognized and the offer was widely seen as just a
"30 year old airframe." The MPs complained about a lingering
sense of "hyphenation" in the US approach to India and
Pakistan, and underlined that the March 25 initiatives would
have gotten a much more favorable response if they had not
coincided with the Pakistan F-16 announcement. "The
government and strategic analysts are on your side", one MP
remarked, "but most Indians remain highly skeptical".


5. (C) The Charge, PolCouns and DATT responded by explaining
in considerable detail the ambitious nature of the F-16/F-18
proposal and the other elements of the US South Asia
Initiative. The MPs argued that the Mission needed to do
more to demonstrate to other MPs and to the broader Indian
public the full extent of the transformation that has taken
place with bilateral relations. "You (the US) need to drive
home the message that Washington aims for an exclusive
relationship with India," one Congress MP advised.


6. (C) The Ambassador and other Mission elements already
have conducted extensive outreach to the media and think
tanks, many of whom have published favorable op-eds.
Nonetheless, we need to do much more. In addition to
increasing efforts to reach out to other lawmakers, mission
intends to engage major US corporations, including defense
contractors, to enlist their assistance in getting the
message out regarding the new US-India agenda and the
opportunity reflected in the March 25 initiatives.


7. (C) IUPF Participants:
Rajiv Shukla, Convenor, Rajya Sabha (Congress)
Sachin Pilot, Lok Sabha (Congress)
Robert Kharshiing, Rajya Sabha (Nationalist Congress Party)
Manvendra Singh, Lok Sabha (BJP)
Ajay Maken, Lok Sabha (Congress)
Madhu Goud Yaskhi, Lok Sabha (Congress)
BJ Panda, Rajya Sabha (Ciju Janata Dal)
Milind Deora, Lok Sabha (Congress)
Ramesh Chandran, Executive Director, IUPF
BLAKE