WASHINGTON: The story goes that when President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to get a particularly contentious piece of legislation through the
US Congress
, he told a business delegation, “Okay, you’ve convinced me. Now go out there and bring pressure on me.” The episode is illustrative of the grandstanding and gamesmanship between the executive and lawmakers in
Washington
, both serving as each other's cat's paw or foil on occasions.
So when a report — vaguely attributed to a policy maker — surfaced earlier this week that US lawmakers had put a hold on delivery of 31 MQ-9A Sea Guardian and Sky Guardian drones to India until New Delhi carries out a “meaningful investigation” into the alleged plot of kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the search for veracity of the report centered not just on the perpetrators of the leak and its accuracy, but also the motive.
On Thursday, the State Department implicitly rejected the idea that the US has held back the delivery, while acknowledging that there were ongoing consultations with lawmakers on the matter. A few hours later, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), an agency within the Department of Defense that promotes military-to-military contacts and handles transfer of defense materiel, training and services to allies and partners, delivered the required certification notifying Congress of the possible sale, effectively killing the story of the "hold" within 24 hours.
Of course, that doesn't mean there was no effort to delay the prospective sale, which will go through only after the two sides agree on price, terms, conditions etc. Since the US Congress has to sign off the deal, lawmakers frequently use procedural aspects to delay or accelerate matters, often on account of constituent pressure. Sometimes, the administration itself primes a lawmaker to impede a sale or aid "to bring pressure" in order to achieve a goal.
In this case, since the drone sale had to go through the Senate and House foreign relations committees, attention zeroed in on its members, particularly those whose districts contained radical Sikh constituents. Since the report about the hold mentioned Indian-American lawmakers, the finger of suspicion pointed towards Congressman Ami Bera, the only Indian-American in the House Committee, whose 6th Congressional district around Sacramento in California has a vocal Sikh community. There's also Brad Sherman, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, also from California, who has been a frequent critic of India's human rights record and has convened hearings on the issue.
As it turned out, any reservations on the Drone sale from these and other lawmakers was easily overcome by the administration because, to paraphrase Gary Lineker in another context, "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win." In this case, the White House had its way after some posturing because scuppering the sale would have undermined its own policy objective of positioning India as a counterweight to China, and seeking its help in ensuring the safety of sea lanes in the Indian-Ocean and Gulf region at a time things are heating up there. As much as lawmakers often arrogate to themselves the power to hold up arms sales to seemingly punish countries in to order to please their constituents, the White House deals with the real world and anytime it wants, it can find a way facilitate arms transfers.
There's also the small matter of commercials. General Atomics, the maker of the Drones, is based out of San Diego, California, and the power of the arms lobby is well known. Most of all, Washington itself would be worsening its reputation in India as an unreliable partner in military sales and supplies re-opening some old wounds. A hold on Drone sales? It was never going to hold for long.
English (US) ·