Global Research

The Logistics Exchange Memorandum Agreement ( LEMOA) signed by the Indian Defense Minister Mohan Parrikar and the Secretary of Defense of the United States on the 29th August 2016 with the lame duck administration of President Obama and on the eve of an election in the United States, will leave the United States an exhausted, bankrupt and overstretched Empire even more fragmented and divided, facing a massive financial storm and currency reset long overdue and already on the horizon .

Niloufer Bhagwat (image right)

The text of this Agreement has not been published, however even the outlines indicate that there are absolutely no strategic advantages, only liabilities, and a serious erosion of India’s diplomatic leadership and hard won stature as a founder member of the Non-Aligned Movement who had steered clear of military pacts and declined to lease its territory for military bases for use against other countries and people, in keeping with its political, economic and strategic sovereignty, which was the objective of the Indian Freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru among other leaders, incarcerated for several years in the prisons of the British Raj.

It is necessary to recall what the elite and oligarchies of the Anglo-Saxon world did to India during British colonial rule which saw many genocides in India, referred to as the “Great Victorian Holocausts”, even as some of the famous Universities in the United States of America such as Yale University were being endowed by the loot from India by those who had served in the East India Company India such as Elihu Yale. He endowed the Yale University from the capital accumulated as a direct gain from financial malpractices in India, including from the slave trade run by this former employee of the East India Company in then Madras Presidency.

The signing of this Logistics agreement, with two more important follow on foundational agreements in the pipeline, is being described by strategic experts committed to an independent strategic policy for India as another “Plassey” moment or syndrome. The reference is to the 1757 battle of Plassey, a miserable skirmish which first gave the British a foot hold in resource rich India; not because a battle was fought but because of the critical role played by Indian financiers and money lenders among them Jagat Sheth who advanced the sum to Robert Clive leading the British forces to bribe Mir Jafar, the General of the overwhelming superior Indian forces of the Nawab of Bengal.

In the case of the current ‘ Plassey” moment it is reported that it is  the financial  interests of the well heeled Indian Diaspora and the Multinational Indian Corporate Sector heads, who are members of US think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations ( CFR) and the Rand Corporation among others in the US and in the UK,  which has influenced the signing of the agreement, as they are a  critical  financial  and political support base of the BJP( Bharatiya Janata Party )  government, the political front of the RSS ( Rashtriya Sevak Sangh established in British India), even though  this agreement and the other agreements being negotiated have seriously adverse consequences for India, its economic and trade relations with Asia, Africa, Eurasia and on  its  political leadership’s  capacity and ability to take independent  military and strategic  decisions, apart from shackling the conceptual and operational  ability of the Indian armed forces and is a slight to  their  honour, dignity and self respect  as the  armed forces of an  independent country, not a to be utilized and placed at the disposal of  a foreign belligerent power in its own interests.

A vital issue not being considered is that even UNESCO has in its report highlighted that India is 50 years behind in millennium development goals, related to even primary and middle school education among other objectives. The reality that we in India cannot escape is that the real enemy in India is poverty, destitution and lack of basic infrastructure. India has always been militarily competent to deal with military attacks and cross border terrorism by Pakistan covertly encouraged by some of the NATO powers including by the United States government. The hysteria of Pakistan on Kashmir has no basis. The accession document is constitutional, legal and valid in conformity with International Law.

Pakistan never complied decades ago and in a time bound framework with the basic UN proposal for vacation of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, a precondition for further steps then proposed almost seven decades ago, now irrelevant. Not desiring to vacate ‘Pakistan Occupied Kashmir’, the government in Pakistan  has resorted to cross border terrorism extensively funding and recruiting terrorists encouraged by some NATO powers  to bleed India and uses  the so called ‘ Kashmir issue’ for internal political purposes. Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Kashmir precedes the use of the al Qaeda. The regional government in Kashmir being inept has created a fracture, with problems of serious maladministration. Sections of the   political elite among others in the region use “the terrorist card” for personal enrichment and corruption and for negotiating political leverage for itself with the Central government.

The  use  of excessive force  in the past, and  more recently in the form of Israeli supplied pellet munitions exported to India  for local law and order problems and the misuse of the issue as a diversion from vital internal economic and  political  issues by both the oligarchies of  Pakistan and India  exacerbates the issue .

The 1962 conflict with China was minor by comparison, the direct consequence of uncertain boundaries, with errors of judgment by both China and India in hasty decision making, as a consequence of  their colonial legacy was never repeated. In recent years serious attempts have been made by both the governments of India and China to resolve issues on the negotiating table and with  success agreed to the signing of a ‘Peace and Tranquility Agreement’ pending delineation   of the boundary. With both sides accepting that economic and trade relations are more important than historical disputes for both countries, in particular since the boundaries are historical, have not been delineated by them and to that extent they are successor States.

LEMOA apart from sowing suspicions in the region, reduces India’s independent standing and its capacity to contribute to the vital issues facing the world. Despite its destitution after almost two centuries of colonial rule, India after 1947 was widely respected in the United Nations and in foreign chanceries as a country which was not militarily aligned or subservient to any of the major powers.

Indian leaders then voiced independent opinions and took major initiatives to resolve issues, to harmonize conflicting positions, and voted independently in the General Assembly free from any influence of   power blocs. In 1948 when the  United States of America and European powers on one hand  and the Soviet Union  on the other  voted for the creation of the State of Israel, it is to the credit of the policy framed in the post Independence period that  India declined to be a camp follower, focused  on the adverse impact of the creation of the State of Israel on the Arab world, and on the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to  Palestinian self determination and forthrightly placed  before the General Assembly of the United Nations the proposal for one State of Palestine for the Palestinians with equal citizenship for  those Jewish people who had  migrated before 1948.

India firmly declined attempts to be lured into the anti Chinese camp by genuine or fraudulent offers then made by the big powers of Security Council membership for India, in an attempt to deny the seat to the Communist Peoples Republic of China. This did not lower India’s stature, it was enhanced.

India’s voice continued to be heard with respect on all International issues. Significantly the Indian leaders who are remembered in Palestinian refugee camps are Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and an Indira Gandhi, and this is so in many parts of the world wherever people wage anti Imperialist struggles.

The present Indian leadership has been reckless in signing the agreement. Did wider consultations take place and with who? Have they read history and do they comprehend that the United States of America is not an ordinary power. It is a belligerent power which considers itself ‘exceptional ‘and is at war with many countries. Its  own  defense  policy statements and on the ground operations establish beyond a shadow of doubt that it is presently at war with the whole  world to retain its primacy and to perpetuate the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, towards which end it is ready to destroy several countries including in the developing and emerging countries, those with whom India has had cordial relations.

The impact of LEMOA on India’s relations with countries which have been targeted as the enemy of the United States and with those countries on whom it is waging a war by other means have not been addressed and considered while signing the agreement, that India will be seen as aiding a belligerent power as’ logistic supply’ is in fact  military assistance when extended to a belligerent power.

The United States already has military bases in 130 countries of the world. Inevitably  on the insistent demands of its own citizens  the United States will have to close down these bases and withdraw from these commitments as the financial collapse becomes a reality after the US election, to the  embarrassment of India ‘s present policy makers who have rushed to sign the agreement without considering even the immediate future or assessing how governments  and people view US policy, that is apart from the creamy layer of the Indian Diaspora in the United States and in the UK and some of the ‘Best and Brightest’ of  Indian Corporate sector always seen as an adjunct of US and UK policies .

This agreement has not been made public with only the outlines being disclosed to the media and  is being referred to by the government of India as a logistic supply agreement on mutual request with facilities for berthing, repair and billeting of military personnel to be provided by both sides; however the reality is that Indian ships and aircraft and troops do not extend themselves beyond the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal except on  goodwill visits or rare and genuine humanitarian assistance and missions.

We can only vainly hope there are no secret clauses to this agreement. Strategic experts in the know are of the view that this agreement is similar to the  to the 2007 LSA agreement( available on the internet)  which the USA has signed with the Philippines a country which has been an integral part of the orbit of the United States of America, and which now seeks to break away from this  alliance as it  has no  future in an Asia where the primary issue today in all countries is rapid economic development, to break out from the colonial and neocolonial backwardness imposed by former  colonial powers, still looting the world. This can happen only when peace is preserved in Asia not by signing logistic supply  military and other agreements to assist a power waging war on the world, or by  reducing oneself to the appendage or a satellite  of a former ‘hegemon‘  supported by the Anglo-Saxon- Zionist world out to seize the world’s resources.

The United States government has throughout its history and  till date, committed genocide, without remorse or conscience and taken over continents of other peoples, ruthlessly colonized countries, pitted one country against another, waged proxy wars through terrorists assisted and supported by the United States government and signed treaties and agreements only to backstab and overthrow both allies and foes to serve its interests  with such policies being justified as  “US exceptionalism ”.

It was known to intellectuals among others in India  that the traditions of the Bharatiya Janata Party ( the  political front of the RSS ) and its leaders and members were patronized by the British Colonial rulers and had never participated in any anti -colonial or anti- Imperialist struggle and like the Muslim League of colonial India, now in government in  Pakistan advanced the two nation theory, and were instruments of the  partition  of the Indian subcontinent to fragment India  in conspiracy with the Colonial power and other political forces; the signing of this LEMOA reinforces the conclusion that these political forces have never accepted India as sovereign and independent of the dominant financial oligarchy of the Western world and have always seen themselves as aligned to these Imperial financial centres,  even if these interests conflict with the interests of the masses of the Indian people.

If this decision is not reversed by the Indian or the American people, the signing of these agreements will be another turning point in the political history of India already covertly overrun by Zionist financial and  security companies and covert agencies.

Niloufer Bhagwat is Vice-President of the Indian Lawyers Association and Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at University of Mumbai