Book review: ‘Friends with Benefits: The India-US Story’ sometimes misses the wood for the trees

Express News Service

One of the greatest departures in India’s foreign relations in the post-Cold War era has been the steady yet dramatic improvement in India’s relations with the US. The literature on this is beginning to grow and promises to grow some more, as its principal protagonists have begun to come out with their memoirs in the US.

Players on the Indian side are yet to put out their penny’s worth (except Jaswant Singh), but these too shall surely follow. Seema Sirohi stands somewhere in the middle.  Being a reputed by-lined columnist for renowned Indian publications certainly allowed her easy access to many in South Block. And her marriage to an American diplomat presumably opened the doors in Washington DC. 

Unlike Rudra Chaudhuri’s Forged in Crisis, which explores the beginnings of Indo-US relations, Sirohi’s book closely plots only the turn-around in the relations between New Delhi and DC. It is a tightly knit account of the Clinton years till the Pokhran blasts, followed by the Singh-Talbott dialogue.

The author then works through the Clinton charm offensive to the real period of take-off in bilateral relations with the coming of Bush Junior, and meticulously plots the systematic improvement in defence relationships through treaties concluded and legislations passed.

She indicates that the institutional connections forged during the Bush (and UPA I) era were so useful that they continued to function as templates for governments that differed widely in their vision––hence Obama and Trump could not but take an already well-advanced relationship forward.

Of particular value in the book are the nine chapters (of the 24) dealing with India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is probably the first treatment of the PM that gives a cogent view of the role 
he has played in shaping India’s foreign policy. Sirohi makes him out to be neither a larger-than-life figure nor the demon that other accounts tend to be.

She firmly portrays him to be someone working in sync with the foreign policy establishment and past practices, but also as someone capable of thinking outside the box when needed.

Modi also comes across as a person capable of rising above pettiness in the larger interests of the country, such as by not failing to attend his first official dinner at the Obama White House, which was staged on a conspicuously smaller scale than that for his predecessor.

The other thing of considerable worth, missing in most other accounts on the subject, is the author’s contextualisation of most events that dot the evolution of Indo-American relations of the last 30 years. This book leaves the reader with a much better impression of what a US President can do with a Congress dominated by his own party, as against one dominated by the other.

This serves to explain why Clinton had it easy for a while to rehabilitate India after the Singh-Talbott talks, but not all the way; and why Bush had it easy going till 2006 in forging defence ties with India, but not after that. Curiously, except for her treatment of the Khobragade affair, Sirohi’s contextualisation of the Indian side of the story is seldom impressive.

If there is any issue with the book, it is that in chronicling the turn-around in diplomatic relations from the standpoint of its principal protagonists in the corridors of power, Sirohi has sometimes missed the wood for the trees. The role of economic liberalisation, for instance, has not been adequately highlighted.

The other problem is while the author criticises the American establishment for always hyphenating India with Pakistan, it is not reflected in much of her own assessment of India’s ties with the US, China and Pakistan, which are often intimately coupled with India. Sirohi’s point that India should be treated on her own merit is quite right––one wishes she herself had done the same.

Name: Friends with Benefits: The India-US Story

Author: Seema Sirohi

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 490

Price: Rs 699

<br /> One of the greatest departures in India’s foreign relations in the post-Cold War era has been the steady yet dramatic improvement in India’s relations with the US. The literature on this is beginning to grow and promises to grow some more, as its principal protagonists have begun to come out with their memoirs in the US.</p> <p>Players on the Indian side are yet to put out their penny’s worth (except Jaswant Singh), but these too shall surely follow. Seema Sirohi stands somewhere in the middle.  Being a reputed by-lined columnist for renowned Indian publications certainly allowed her easy access to many in South Block. And her marriage to an American diplomat presumably opened the doors in Washington DC. </p> <p>Unlike Rudra Chaudhuri’s Forged in Crisis, which explores the beginnings of Indo-US relations, Sirohi’s book closely plots only the turn-around in the relations between New Delhi and DC. It is a tightly knit account of the Clinton years till the Pokhran blasts, followed by the Singh-Talbott dialogue.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });</p> <!-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v. 2.0.82 --> <div class="quads-location quads-ad200503 " id="quads-ad200503" style="float:none;margin:0px 3px 3px 3px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;" data-lazydelay="0"> <!-- WP QUADS - Quick AdSense Reloaded v.2.0.82 Content AdSense async --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;" data-ad-format="auto" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7550963679842137" data-ad-slot="1823845571"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> <!-- end WP QUADS --> </div> <p>The author then works through the Clinton charm offensive to the real period of take-off in bilateral relations with the coming of Bush Junior, and meticulously plots the systematic improvement in defence relationships through treaties concluded and legislations passed.</p> <p>She indicates that the institutional connections forged during the Bush (and UPA I) era were so useful that they continued to function as templates for governments that differed widely in their vision––hence Obama and Trump could not but take an already well-advanced relationship forward.</p> <p>Of particular value in the book are the nine chapters (of the 24) dealing with India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is probably the first treatment of the PM that gives a cogent view of the role <br /> he has played in shaping India’s foreign policy. Sirohi makes him out to be neither a larger-than-life figure nor the demon that other accounts tend to be.</p> <!-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v. 2.0.82 --> <div class="quads-location quads-ad200503 " id="quads-ad200503" style="float:none;margin:0px 3px 3px 3px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;" data-lazydelay="0"> <!-- WP QUADS - Quick AdSense Reloaded v.2.0.82 Content AdSense async --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;" data-ad-format="auto" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7550963679842137" data-ad-slot="1823845571"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> <!-- end WP QUADS --> </div> <p>She firmly portrays him to be someone working in sync with the foreign policy establishment and past practices, but also as someone capable of thinking outside the box when needed.</p> <p>Modi also comes across as a person capable of rising above pettiness in the larger interests of the country, such as by not failing to attend his first official dinner at the Obama White House, which was staged on a conspicuously smaller scale than that for his predecessor.</p> <p>The other thing of considerable worth, missing in most other accounts on the subject, is the author’s contextualisation of most events that dot the evolution of Indo-American relations of the last 30 years. This book leaves the reader with a much better impression of what a US President can do with a Congress dominated by his own party, as against one dominated by the other.</p> <!-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v. 2.0.82 --> <div class="quads-location quads-ad200503 " id="quads-ad200503" style="float:none;margin:0px 3px 3px 3px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;" data-lazydelay="0"> <!-- WP QUADS - Quick AdSense Reloaded v.2.0.82 Content AdSense async --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;" data-ad-format="auto" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7550963679842137" data-ad-slot="1823845571"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> <!-- end WP QUADS --> </div> <p>This serves to explain why Clinton had it easy for a while to rehabilitate India after the Singh-Talbott talks, but not all the way; and why Bush had it easy going till 2006 in forging defence ties with India, but not after that. Curiously, except for her treatment of the Khobragade affair, Sirohi’s contextualisation of the Indian side of the story is seldom impressive.</p> <p>If there is any issue with the book, it is that in chronicling the turn-around in diplomatic relations from the standpoint of its principal protagonists in the corridors of power, Sirohi has sometimes missed the wood for the trees. The role of economic liberalisation, for instance, has not been adequately highlighted.</p> <p>The other problem is while the author criticises the American establishment for always hyphenating India with Pakistan, it is not reflected in much of her own assessment of India’s ties with the US, China and Pakistan, which are often intimately coupled with India. Sirohi’s point that India should be treated on her own merit is quite right––one wishes she herself had done the same.</p> <!-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v. 2.0.82 --> <div class="quads-location quads-ad200503 " id="quads-ad200503" style="float:none;margin:0px 3px 3px 3px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;" data-lazydelay="0"> <!-- WP QUADS - Quick AdSense Reloaded v.2.0.82 Content AdSense async --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;" data-ad-format="auto" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7550963679842137" data-ad-slot="1823845571"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> <!-- end WP QUADS --> </div> <p>Name: Friends with Benefits: The India-US Story</p> <p>Author: Seema Sirohi</p> <p>Publisher: HarperCollins</p> <!-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v. 2.0.82 --> <div class="quads-location quads-ad200503 " id="quads-ad200503" style="float:none;margin:0px 3px 3px 3px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;" data-lazydelay="0"> <!-- WP QUADS - Quick AdSense Reloaded v.2.0.82 Content AdSense async --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;" data-ad-format="auto" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7550963679842137" data-ad-slot="1823845571"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> <!-- end WP QUADS --> </div> <p>Pages: 490</p> <p>Price: Rs 699<br />