India stood up for dear friend Iran: WikiLeaks

India lobbied the US against imposing sanctions on Iran for trying to develop nuclear weapons while it expressed concern over the emergence of Bangladesh and the Gulf countries as terrorist-funding routes into India, according to a latest batch of US diplomatic cables leaked by whilstleblower site WikiLeaks.

The two countries also explored the possibility of an Indian troop deployment in Afghanistan to prevent the country falling again to Pakistan-based elements, the documents revealed.

“The imposition of sanctions punishes ordinary people, who then turn their anger outward.. We are cautious about adhering to a broad attack on Iran,” India’s national security adviser MK Narayanan told senators Russ Feingold and Bob Casey, according to a cable sent from the New Delhi embassy to the secretary of state in 2008. The issue of the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons programme had been a sore point in diplomatic relations between the two, with considerable speculation in international and domestic circles about whether the Manmohan Singh government had secretly capitulated to the US efforts to bring on economic sanctions against Iran, a traditional Indian ally.

Contrary to fears, however, Narayanan came across as trying hard to disabuse the Americans of their notion that Iran was yet another hot-bed of Islamist terrorism.

According to the cable, Narayanan told the senators that Shia clergy are more “sophisticated and erudite” than their Sunni counterparts and sanctions on Iran will only worsen the US’s case. Pointing to the self-flagellation ritual performed during Muharram, Narayanan said the Iranian psyche had “a tremendous capacity” to absorb punishment. “Self-flagellation comes to them naturally,” he is quoted as saying, while trying to discourage the senators from advocating sanctions.

Another cable reveals India’s deep-seated fears of a US ‘abandonment’ of Pakistan and the “deep trouble” that it will cause to India itself.

In a chat with US counter-terrorism official Virginia Palmer, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, G Parthasarathy and other officials are portrayed as being extremely worried about any US scaling down in Afghanistan. They, however, were all for the US exit from Iraq.

“The cost of losing Afghanistan is too great for India,” Parthasarathy is quoted as saying. When asked if India would consider putting troops on the ground in northern Afghanistan, Parthasarathy responded that it would depend on “how it’s politically played,” acknowledging that the idea has some strategic value, the cable went on.