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Polls may affect Clinton's India trip

The political upheaval in India has put into limbo US President Bill Clinton's plans to visit the world's largest democracy, says the Washington Post.

White House officials had tentatively selected February 10 to 20 for a journey through the region that would have taken Clinton for the first time to India, Pakistan and, possibly, Bangladesh. But last month the coalition government in New Delhi collapsed and a mid-term election will take place by the middle of March.

Diplomats consider it unwise for the President to show up in the midst of an election because it might appear that he was getting involved in internal affairs.

In addition to concern about the political turmoil, the President may face difficulty because of an already hectic timetable for foreign presidential trips in 1998.

If a trip gets pushed beyond February, it begins to interfere with an April trip to Chile for a Latin American summit. The rest of year is already booked, including a June meeting of industrial powers in England, followed by a possible summit visit to Moscow and an August mission to sub-Saharan Africa and a November Asian Economic meeting in Malaysia which also could be combined with Clinton's as-yet-unscheduled trip to China.

White House officials insist that Clinton still wants to go through with his tour of India and Pakistan to mark the 50th anniversary of their Independence.

''There is a general feeling that it is important for the President to go,'' the Post quotes White House Deputy National Security Advisor James B Steinberg as saying. ''This happens to governments all the time in democracies.''

UNI

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