President Mohammed Khatami visits India at a time when the Iranians are feeling restive about the slow pace of reform and economic growth. He has not been able to deliver on the promises he had made before being elected President twice with massive support. The clergy, which still controls the levers of power, has stonewalled every move of his to introduce liberal democracy and religious and social freedoms and break the regime’s isolation. Though sympathetic to reform, Khatami seems to have reconciled to the situation, while continuing efforts to establish the rule of law and to help his people breathe the air of freedom.

Last month, nearly 10,000 people battled the police and Basit (the clerics’ militia) in the streets of Teheran in a show of support for reformist students in the Modarras University and a sign of wide dissatisfaction with the regime. Following closely the soccer riots and teachers’ strike, the mass show of protest, joined also by chador-clad women, shows that the people have not given up the fight against the conservatives.

The students were protesting against the death sentence given to Prof. Hashem Aghajani, a prominent reformist, for asking the people not to blindly follow religious leaders. Even though Khatami denounced Aghajani’s punishment as "inappropriate," he did little else and even cancelled his customary Students Day address at the University. The police baton-charged the demonstrators, injuring many. President Khatami and Ayatollah Khomeni have co-operated, though uneasily, since the former’s first election, in the face of stiff opposition from the conservatives and the demonstrators have not succeeded in driving a wedge between them. The reformists, however, won a small victory earlier when, in response to protests, the Supreme leader agreed to ‘pardon’ a jailed member of Parliament, Hossein Loghmanian, and two others, sentenced to 10 months in prison for criticising the judiciary during their speeches in Parliament. Khatami admitted that the judiciary had invaded the legislature and violated the Constitution by prosecuting lawmakers despite their parliamentary immunity.

The confrontation came to a head when speaker Mehdi Karroubi threatened to resign if the judiciary kept encroaching upon his area of authority and had staged a walkout along with 60 other members of parliament. The situation was defused when Ayatollah Khomeni, who holds overall charge of the judicial system, the police and broadcasting organisations, relented, though he refused to accept the concept of parliamentary immunity.

Before seeking re-election in May 2001, Khatami had expressed distress and helplessness over the state of affairs and confessed that the head of state did not have adequate prerogatives to do his job. The President was unable to stop violations of the Constitution or ensuring its proper implementation, which weakened democracy and threatened to stir up tension. He has hardly ever publicly challenged the structure, preferring instead, to work within it, tinkering with it where he could and trying to bring about change through persuasion, rather than confrontation. Khatami has spent more time restraining his supporters from pressing extreme demands beyond the rigid Islamic code than in fighting the conservatives to get these demands fulfilled. His pleas to remove the constitutional ambiguities and restraints so that he could do his job properly have gone unheeded.

Khatami is not the supreme leader or the final court of appeal; the slot belongs to Ayatollah Khomeni. The other supra-legislative bodies, the Guardians Council and the Expediency Council that oversee the government, judiciary and parliament, are so heavily conservative-dominated that the reformists have not been able to get approval to greater relaxation of the system and reform. Khatami thus faces a difficult task of governance and needs friends like India to expand economic interaction and trade and counter the West’s sanctions, which are still in place.

The population has doubled since the 1979 revolution and the regime has found it difficult to meet the growing aspirations of the people. Per capita income has remained more or less static, unemployment has soared and inflation still rules high. Apart from the tremendous economic pressure, a major challenge to the regime has come from domestic political questioning of the role of the clergy that tends to become authoritarian and a shade fundamentalist.

In the past few years, New Delhi and Teheran have drawn closer in their appreciation of the regional security environment, vitiated by the developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s role in promoting the despicable Taliban regime. India and Iran both endorse political moderation and oppose extremist tendencies and terrorism in the region. India supports Khatami’s call for a dialogue among civilisations to foster general understanding and tolerance and avoidance of military conflict. The two countries share a multi dimensional commonality of interests and have a congruence of benefits in economic and security matters.

Khatami and Vajpayee will try to build on the growing convergence of their political and economic interests. Bilateral relations have evolved considerably since 1993 when former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao travelled to Iran on what was characterised as a landmark visit. Vajpayee’s visit to Iran weeks before Khatami was re-elected President for the second term, reflected the new level of political comfort between the two nations.

President visits India after his three-day Pakistan journey in December, during which he pursued the proposal of an overland gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan. Pakistan has reiterated its assurance for the security of the $ 4 billion gas pipeline and it sees enormous economic benefits from it in terms of annual royalty, as well as cheaper gas.