Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendment offered by the Gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

Mr. Speaker, the arguments against this punitive, anti-India amendment are stronger this year than they’ve ever been.  In March, President Clinton completed the first visit to India by an American President in more than 20 years.  The President’s trip, accompanied by a bipartisan Congressional delegation, produced a range of new agreements on trade and investment, security partnerships and cooperation on energy and the environment.  In September, India’s democratically elected Prime Minister will be visiting the U.S., to further build upon this progress, especially in the area of economic relations.

India is the world’s largest democracy, with over a billion people.  It is a country that has made tremendous progress in free-market economic reforms over the past decade.

More to the point, since Mr. Burton has been critical of India’s human rights record, India’s National Human Rights Commission has been praised by our State Department and many international agencies for its independence and effectiveness.  Indeed, India has become a model for the rest of Asia, and the rest of the developing world, in terms of democratization, economic reform and human rights.

Finally, cutting development aid to India will only serve to hamper America’s efforts to reduce poverty, eradicate disease and promote broad-based economic growth in the world’s second most populous nation.