Friday, March 20, 2009

Why Indians Will Hate Obama


Very soon, you might have Prakash Karat and fellow comrades crooning, ‘I told you so’, as the Indian media slams Barack Obama and Uncle Sam for once again ‘tilting against’ India. You can already hear murmurs of protest as protectionism gathers momentum in America and young Indians find their dream jobs disappearing in the United States. You must have read some pundits suggest how India must adopt tit for tat measures by denying contracts to companies like Boeing. By now, many defense pundits, too, have expressed shock at Uncle Sam denying some key technologies to the Indian armed forces. Then there are those hawks who are now convinced that America is absolutely not interested in genuinely helping India when it comes to battling cross border terrorism. And rest assured, the Obama administration will take many decisions and make many choices that will anger, dismay and even outrage urban Indians who haven’t stopped fantasizing about the emerging strategic partnership between India and America. For this breed of Indians, Uncle Sam would follow up the nuclear deal by doing everything that is anti-Pakistan and anti-China if they have a conflict of interest with India. Sadly such delusions always get shattered. They will inevitably get shattered by end of this year. So after the Indo-US euphoria of the last few years, get prepared for a phase of disappointment and rage at the perfidy of Uncle Sam. And don’t be surprised if Obama becomes one of the most criticized personalities in Indian media (in any case, even his honeymoon with the American media is on the verge of collapsing).

The brutal fact is: both the media and the middle class Indians will be wrong when they rail at Obama and his policies. The reason behind that is another brutal fact: India stills behaves childishly and naively when it comes to the pursuit of national interests, foreign policy and geo-poltics. No wonder, the discourse on foreign policy in India oscillates between triumphant and childish optimism and naïve pessimism. When India signed the nuclear deal, optimism reached a feverish pitch; when a few Indians don’t get American jobs, the pessimism plunges into depths of despair. That is because most Indians confuse between cold blooded pursuit of national interests and the feel good buzz around emotional bonding. There will always be some occasions when America and India’s national interests do not converge when it comes to dealing with Pakistan. That does not make America anti-Indian. There will always be some occasions when the head will rule over the heart and Uncle Sam will choose China over India (China happens to literally propping up the US economy at the moment by sending surplus dollars to America). That doesn’t make America anti-Indian. There will always be some occasions when political compulsions in America will hurt India Inc. Again, that doesn’t make America anti-Indian.

But beyond these simple facts, there is another brutal fact that would hurt many Indians. We tend to think that India is more important than it actually is. Sample this fact: Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has visited Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing soon after taking over. New Delhi was never on the agenda. And who visited India? It was Richard Holbrooke who is officially supposed to look after Afghanistan and Pakistan. Touché.


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5 comments:

  1. Nice blog buddy. Hey, check out this new website. www.indianewsupdates.com. It looks cool. What do you think?

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  2. Sir,

    India is not important for US as an ally, but US is friendly to India. I think by carrying out surgical attacks on pakistan's taliban camp's US did India a favor and fought on behalf of India whcih India has failed to appreciate.

    US always said it is against terrorism on any soil and that any civilized nations would solve the matter at the table Amicably.

    US needs to be friendly to different nations at different times as it has the job of power balancer and moderator.

    There are many nations who have historical tendencies of colonization and misadventures against them such countries have to be prevented to become world super powers, (By any means).

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  3. Obama dont give a s hi t to India. He is anti-Indian at core. Truth is he hate Indians becuase it is a very general conception among blacks in US that Indians/Asians are taking their jobs and that is why they arte poor. This is the truth, agree or dont agree. Truth is also he has Islamic values at heart and pro-muslim and pro-Pakistan. He wants all outsourcing back to US, all Indians working in US out of US and still want US corporation to sell their stuff in India. Indians will regret. All those Indians who were jumping with happiness when he won elections - I hate those stupids.

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  4. hey cmon mike how can you discriminate on basis of religion. All are different. And who is here poor in us. And if they hate Indians for taking their jobs I think its natural and would be there if chinese come in india for jobs and as they are the most efficient and hard working people, they can take your job too. then you will start hating them too..

    I think I like obama, he is different from all the previous presidents. He is an asset to usa.

    Please stop discriminating on basis of color and religion. Everybody is different. All have different set of believes.

    I am an indian and hindu too. And I never discriminate on color and religion. For me all are same.

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  5. I think Hill Clinton came to India last year. I actually think we underestimate India a little too much, we bash ourselves a little too much. Roughly 90% of articles Indian media writes tell me how emotional and irrational Indians are and how unimportant our country is.

    Mr. Guru, when you think Tokyo or Seoul are more important than India, you might just be an idiot, or a person with a serious inferiority complex. Tokyo and Seoul are parts of the American Empire; as the new Secy of State, it is only natural Hill Clinton would go on a tour of her empire. How can Tokyo or Seoul be "important" to America? Tokyo and Seoul are important to America in the same sense a pet dog is important to its master, just because Hillary decided to spend some time with her pet dog countries doesn't mean that India is not "important".

    Beijing? Of course? Beijing is a more important place than New Delhi. EVERYONE in India gets that.

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