Secretary Powell, it is said, ''promised a full review of US sanctions policy'' which hardly justifies any jubilation in New Delhi. If Indo-US relations are so full of promise and a new rapport has been achieved a simple assurance of a rethink on sanctions that shouldn't have been imposed in the first place falls quite short of what can reasonably be expected. Washington ''promises'' something for which New Delhi seems to be pleading and this is accounted a success for Indian diplomacy. Underlying all this is the exaggerated importance New Delhi tends to give to the exposure it gets in the western media. Any favourable reference to India in the leading publications in America and Europe is eagerly seized as evidence of increasing acceptance by the west.
Any unfavourable reference plunges New Delhi into gloom laced with bitter reproach.
No surprise then that Jaswant Singh believes that the guard of honour with which he was received was an honour for India. A summary of the above would be to say that as the west sees it China is a hard state and India a soft one, with the latter being easily appeased by a ''promise'' and a guard of honour.