House committee shoots down Republicans 'no aid to India' move

C K Arora in Washington

The international relations committee of the US House of Representatives has struck off a provision in the foreign operations bill which sought to deny American development aid to India in fiscal 1997-98.

The committee on Wednesday defeated by 19 to 15 votes a Republican measure to this effect by changing the language of the provision concerned in the bill which will now go before the full House for formal approval.

The measure, which indirectly targeted India, urged the Clinton administration to cut off foreign assistance to any country which votes with the United States less than 25 per cent of the time in the United Nations General Assembly.

Besides India, Cuba, North Korea and Syria fall in this category. Since these three countries do not receive US economic aid the provision targets only India.

The alternate language, introduced in the bill by Democratic Congressman Gary Ackerman, deleted the anti-India provision and it was approved by a margin of four in the committee.

Earlier, another Democratic Congressman Menendez, in a statement in the committee, said that the original provision ''outrageously'' singles out India for punishment.

''I feel it is wrong to put India, the world's largest democracy, in the category of Cuba, North Korea and Syria,'' Menendez added.

''India does not vote with the US a majority of time. However, if the consensus votes are taken into account, India voted with the US 82.2 per cent of the time on matters designated as 'important' by the state department. India's overall voting coincidence with the US is 69.9 per cent,'' he said.

''Eliminating US assistance to the world's largest democracy sends the wrong message to India's nascent government as it forges ahead with its economic reform programme, especially when it is so important to US businesses,'' he added.

Earlier, a bipartisan group of 19 Congressmen, belonging to the congressional caucus on India, sent a joint letter to house foreign relations committee chairman Benjamin A Gilman, a Republican, urging him to delete the anti-India provision.

The letter also opposed another provision seeking to eliminate the post of assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs.

Opposing the cut in aid, it said the US Agency for International Development was contributing ''significant'' technical assistance to help India establish financial institutions necessary to sustain its economic liberalisation over the long run and access capital from financial markets to fund development projects.

''The fruits of this liberalisation are already being felt in terms of major opportunities for American businesses and investors,'' it said. ''Clearly, establishing closer ties with a nation that accounts for one-sixth of the world's population, while creating new markets for American goods, serves to promote US policy interests.''

UNI