Author: Vasantha Arora
Publication: India Abroad
Date: September 18,
2000
Washington: The U.S.
print media, in stark contrast to the news blackout of the last Indian
prime ministerial trip here in 1994, took generous note of Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee's four-day official visit to the United States, which
ended on Sunday.
Almost all the major
newspapers, including the New York Times, USA Today, LA Times and Washington
Post, carried, with photographs, stories about the address to a joint session
of Congress and his White House meeting with President Bill Clinton.
However, most of the
television networks, with the exception of CNN, did not show much interest
in the tour, which began on September 14, with the prime minister's address
to the joint session.
The Washington Post published
about half a dozen stories in recent days about India, including one from
Islamabad on September 16, bringing out sharp contrast in Vajpayee's visit
to the U.S. and that of Pakistani military leader Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, who despite his efforts to see Clinton did not succeed.
"Despite Musharraf's
efforts to portray his U.S. visit as a success, highlighted last
week by a brief handshake and chat with Clinton during the U.N. Millennium
Summit in New York, the spotlight clearly belonged to Vajpayee, who was
received with warmth and pomp during an official state visit to Washington,"
the Post wrote.
On the eve of Vajpayee's
arrival in Washington on September 13, the Los Angeles Times carried an
article, "Armed India Can Help Stabilise Asia," by Selig S. Harrison
in which he advised President Clinton "to quietly bury this self-defeating
policy when he meets Vajpayee."
Harrison, a Senior Fellow
of the Century Foundation, also asked the United States to accept the reality
of a nuclear-armed India as part of a broader recognition of its emergence
as a major economic and military power. Such a shift would remove
the last major barrier blocking a rapid improvement in Indo-U.S.
relations, Harrison said.
The daily had another
article on September 15; the day Vajpayee met President Clinton, by professor
of Asian Studies at George Town University James Clad, which said, "Vajpayee's
visit should help us to rethink basic U.S. relationships in Asia.
India's influence in Asia has been expanding in the last few years.
We need to stay focused on new agenda opportunities just as much as old
anxieties."
