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Pallone Drums Up Support To Defeat Anti-India Resolution

Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone has come out in opposition to the amendment, seeking to withhold American military assistance to India on the basis of its voting record in the United Nations which is reportedly not favourable to the United States.

The amendment, expected to be offered by Republican Congressman William Goodling, would prohibit foreign military assistance to countries which fail to support the United States at least 25 per cent of the time in the UN General Assembly. India figures in the list of such nations.

Pallone, in his speech in the US House of Representatives yesterday, called on his congressional colleagues to oppose the Goodling amendment. The legislation is scheduled to be debated in the house beginning Monday and Pallone pledged to work with his colleagues to defeat the anti-India measure.

Two Congressmen -- Gary Ackerman (Democrat) and James Greenwood (Republican) -- had already made known their resolve to oppose the move in the overall interest of US-India relations.

In addition to opposing the Goodling amendment, Pallone also announced his support for a provision sponsored by house international relations committee chairman Benjamin Gilman that would extend presidential waiver authority on the sanctions against India and Pakistan for another year. He hoped the Congress would ultimately adopt a more far-reaching solution to the sanctions issue.

He wanted the house to adopt the senate proposal which called for suspending the sanctions against India and Pakistan for five years.

Opposing the Goodling Amendment, he said the voting in the United Nations General Assembly was a ''largely irrelevant way of determining who our friends and foes are.'' ''It would be seen as a purely punitive action, creating an atmosphere of distrust that would make it much more difficult for us a achieve vitally important goals,'' Pallone continued. He said, ''The vast majority of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are adopted by consensus. When you count those votes, India votes with the US 84 per cent of the time. If you look at the votes identified as '' important'' by our State Department, including the consensus votes, India is with us 75 per cent of the time."

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