One look at US President Barack Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review and you know what his intentions are.

Having seen Obama’s stand on the Reliable Replacement Warheads programme, I am not surprised!

If there were any lingering doubts about Barack Obama’s ‘dogged determination’ to live up to his Nobel prize, the new START treaty signed with Russia, should clear them up pretty fast.

Washington is well and truly in the throes of a season called ‘Change’. The faster we come to terms with it in India, the better for us.

At the Nuclear Security Summit, the writing was on the wall. Question is, are we prepared, and more importantly, do we have a winning gameplan?

Frankly, I was surprised – and pleasantly so – that New Delhi decided to stand by Iran in the wake of clear and present pressure from Washington to toe its line on Tehran.

But almost in the same breath, I was disappointed to see our leaders rub their hands in glee, when Pakistan was admonished for its terrible nuclear proliferation record.

If we are to be seen and accepted as a responsible and noteworthy participant at the UN high table, we must rise above, and far beyond, our little pleasures in seeing Islamabad squirm. For the stakes are far higher, and the issues much more international, and important.

Where is the strength of conviction and leadership that we exhibited, when we called America’s bluff on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, terming it biased and unjust, thus refusing to sign it? Where is that depth of insight, and that unfailing sense of right and wrong, that led us to co-found the Non-Aligned Movement?

Today, because we choose to obfuscate about our nuclear arsenal, when we hem and haw about the preparedness of our nuclear deterrent, because we fail to stand up for ourselves and our convictions, we find ourselves unwittingly on the same side of the stick as Iran, North-Korea and Pakistan, in Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review.

To those who say, “Well, it’s just a policy document”, to them I say, that’s exactly what policy documents are meant to do – let the world know where you stand, on what issue.

President Obama’s priority to exit Afghanistan, while leaving it in a relatively stable situation – even if that entails handing over central control to Pakistan – is already on display. He has a domestic audience to pander to, and lets not forget, what he’s doing, is in America’s national interest. Pakistan and at least the Army-ISI combine would like to believe, that it is in Pakistan’s national interest, to try to exercise some level of control and influence over Afghanistan. It’s another matter, that the Afghans can’t really stand the Pakistanis and it’ll only be a matter of time before Kabul tells Islamabad where to get off. President Karzai of course, realises that he needs to play ball with the Americans, while also making room for not-so-acceptable deals with erstwhile notorious sections of Afghanistan’s technicolour fabric. That after all, is in Afghanistan’s national interest.

Trade and investments notwithstanding, America will drop India in the blink of an eye, in favour of China, the moment the Korean peninsula hots up. Given Kim Jong-il’s failing health and the complications of justifying a successor, hot up it will, in the Korean peninsula.

Where does all this leave us, and Indian national interest?

We seemed to know how to play the game with the Republicans – even if we’ve always maintained that they’re better friends of India than the Democrats. But with the new dispensation in Washington and Obama at the helm of affairs, we’re fast running out of ideas.

The game is afoot.

Let’s stop this obfuscation!