In the past, we were an enslaved people. If the way we kowtow to some is an indication, we still behave like serfs. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US secretary of state, arrived in India and we behaved as if an emissary of God had descended on our shores. We fawned and we fretted. We have a tradition of treating our visitors as Gods, Atithi Devo Bhava, but do we need to bend over backwards?

If reports are to be beli-eved, what is now being called a gaffe at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt by prime minister Manmohan Singh, when he offered to separate the terror attacks from resumption of ta-lks with Pakistan, was becau-se we wished to project a good picture to the visiting US secretary of state. At the time of the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, the National Democratic Alliance government dithered because a military strike against Pakistan could have jeopardised the ongoing US action in Pakistan against Al Qaeda. Our security concerns did not se-em matter.

This time round, the prime minister was seen to have gone soft to get a pat from the visiting US secretary of state. If true, India’s interests have been compromised. I have yet to come across a state that considers its security and integrity as subservient to that of other nations. If we behave like doormats, people will wa-lk over us.

When Hillary Clinton was in Mumbai, our security for-ces in association or on orders of the US security service tu-rned Mumbai into a fortress. Areas were cordoned off with no consideration to the hardship caused to residents. Residents of Walkeshwar weren’t allowed to come out of their homes because the US secretary of state was shopping at the Seva Store in their neighbourhood. Our ministers are-n’t accorded such treatment even on official visits to the West. They stand in immigration queues and are frisked. But then it isn’t the fault of western authorities, they are just doing their duty.

One incident during the visit of Hillary Clinton that was annoying was when two Mumbaikars, Feroze Mithibo-rewala and Kishore Jagtap, were picked up from their ho-mes and detained by the police for the entire duration of her visit to Mumbai. Neither Feroze nor Kishore are terrorists, nor are they dangerous. Both are committed political activists, both passionate re-bels for a cause, but harmless people. Feroze and Jagtap we-ren’t planning any demonstr-ation against the visiting secretary of state. They are both paranoid that, as they term it, the ‘neo-colonialist, capitalist, zionists’ are conspiring to ev-entually colonise the world. Why did the Mumbai Police have to detain them? Were they acting on orders from the US secret service? If that was the case, it is shameful.

Americans don’t detain Khalistan supporters in the US when Indian dignitaries visit US cities. Not only the Mumbai Police but the Union home minister must explain to the nation why they considered two Indian citizens to be a threat to the visiting US secretary of state. Was there a threat perception or, as usual, we were pleasing our masters? Going back to Pakistan. That country has always bested India in diplomacy. It still does. Our prime minster’s recent offer to delink terrorism from resumption of peace ta-lks at the non-aligned summit in Egypt is considered a diplomatic faux pas. Time may pr-ove this perception wrong, but for the moment that’s how

it seems.

During the run up to independence, while the British were busy playing the Congress against the Muslim Lea-gue, leaders of the League managed to snatch away mu-ch more from Congress leaders than they could have ever hoped for. They continued to do so after Partition. Pandit Nehru was adamant about keeping the external affairs ministry and Sardar Patel was insistent about keeping the home portfolio in the interim government. The Muslim Le-ague was thus gifted the powerful finance portfolio. They were handed over the purse strings of the interim government, which they used to devastating effect. Congress ministers were made to grovel at the feet of the finance minister for every penny.

Finally, the harassment became so unbearable that, at a later date, Pandit Nehru confessed that, “The headache was so persistent and unbearable th-at we were willing to cut off our head to get rid of the headache.”

The coups by Pakistani diplomacy against us continued when they managed to get Panditji to refer the matter of Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir to the United Nations. Kashmir is still festering and we are suffering for more than 60 years now. Then Pakistan forced a ceasefire on us and has since illegally held on to occupied Kashmir. Once ag-ain, displaying the ease with which they can outmanoeuvre us. The only time we managed to beat Pakistan was in 1971. When Indira Gandhi, the iron lady of modern India, adroitly ordered and backed a masterly military operation against Pakistan and liberated Bangladesh.

I hope our current rulers remember this lesson from history. We have bested Pakistan only by a military option, never by diplomacy.

The writer is founder president, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation