Powell Answers to Students in India

They were students, so they came seeking answers.

Why did the U.S. attack Saddam Hussein’s regime but not other dictatorships? Why did the U.S. preach free trade but close some of its markets to developing countries? Why is it OK for the U.S. to have nuclear weapons but not other nations?

For 30 minutes, college students handpicked from India’s leading universities fired questions. For 30 minutes, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell put up a wide-ranging defense.

The exchange was an unusually in-depth demonstration of the anger, ambivalence and confusion that many people in developing countries feel about America nearly a year after the invasion of Iraq.

And it provided a window into the frustration that many students harbor toward a foreign policy that they regard as hypocritical and unfocused.

The reason for the war “was that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, which haven’t been found yet. Do you believe it was a mistake and that America owes an apology?” asked one young woman.

“No, we don’t believe it was a mistake. We believed at the time of the decision to go to war that Iraq had stockpiles. We had good reason to believe that,” said Powell, who was in the middle of a trip through South Asia.

Aman Sethi, a 20-year-old chemistry major, drew loud applause a moment later when he asked why the U.S. had criticized India and Pakistan for developing nuclear weapons.

“Why doesn’t America give up its weapons as well?” Sethi said, interrupting Powell as he tried to answer.

“I hope for the day when no one has nuclear weapons because no one has a need for them,” Powell shot back.

Interviewed afterward, several students said Powell had failed to answer their questions, although they added that America’s top diplomat had probably swayed some in the audience.

They also said that Powell had a difficult job: justifying an invasion that many of their classmates believe was unjustified.

“Do I detect an imperialist streak?” asked Devahuti Choudhury, a 19-year-old English major at Delhi University.

The discussion took place during a trip in which Powell faced questions from Indian leaders as well, especially about job outsourcing. Although the U.S. and India say their relationship is at a high point, the issue of sending work, especially in information technology, overseas has become politically potent for both, which are having national elections this year.

Many Indians see the current uproar as evidence of a double standard, with U.S. politicians complaining about economic damage while demanding that India lift tariffs in areas such as agriculture, which could hurt Indian farm workers.

“The world has spent the last decade trying to make sensible economics prevail over the temptation for short-term political gains,” Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told a conference on Friday, deriding the “strange controversies” over outsourcing. “We should not now drive a reverse process.”

Powell said that he had talked about the controversy with his Indian counterpart, Minister of External Affairs Yashwant Sinha, during a meeting Tuesday. He emphasized that the U.S. remained committed to free trade, adding that it would continue pressing India to lower trade barriers.

But he also acknowledged that the U.S. needed to do more to provide training for American workers who had lost their jobs.

“It is a reality of 21st century international economics that these kind of dislocations will take place,” Powell said.

Later, Powell flew to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he arrived this morning to meet with President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan leaders.