Bush in India
A success. That's more or less how Indian papers
(at least the English-language ones), have been describing Bush's visit. They've
also surmised that there was a lot of pressure to strike a nuclear agreement, or
else Bush's visit would have been deemed a faillre.
The funny thing is that Bush and Manmohan Singh
(India's Prime Minister) weren't even the ones really engaging in late-night
negotiations. But they were the ones who stood up at the press conference and
patted each other on the backs. The Indian press seems to think that the Bush
Administration has made a lot of concessions during the negotiations, and that
getting approval from Congress is going to be a challenge. It's also interesting
that Bush has been in his speeches emphasizing how important this agreement is
for the environment, since it will mean India's civilian nuclear program can
move ahead, and expand, and India will be less dependent on oil in the
future.
The lead up to Bush's visit was
more informative in terms of how Indians view the U.S. in general, and Bush in
particular. Going back a month or so, there was an incident where an American
ambassador was quoted by the press as having told India, more or less, that it
needed to vote with the U.S. against Iran in the IAEA, or else. Indians were
quite outraged. They saw this as an instance of the superpower trying to
determine the foreign policy of India. This incidence was telling because the
response was less about the substance of the issue, and more about asserting
India's own unique identity and interests in the world of international
politics.
In terms of Bush's foreign
military policies, Indians, especially muslim Indians, have many of the same
objections that I suspect all of the countries not part of the "coalition of the
willing" have. It will be interesting to see how, or whether, India gets dragged
into future American conflicts that are ostensibly part of the war on terror. In
Bush's closing speech here in India, the main theme was that, as a great
democracy, India must stand with the U.S. in creating "democracy" and "freedom"
around the world (I'm using the quotes as they appeared in an article in The
Hindu).
By now, Bush has arrived in
Pakistan, where there were protests of more than 10,000 people yesterday, and a
few days ago a bomb outside a U.S. consulate in Karachi killed an American
diplomat. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has responded to Bush's India
visit by claiming that the U.S., having "pocketed" India, should remember that
Pakistan has a special relationship with China. This is a bit frightening, since
it suggests the possibility of a new nuclear arms race--where the U.S. and India
try to stay a step ahead of Pakistan and
China.
I'll close by mentioning an
article about a pre-visit press conference Bush held with Indian journalists
(just to provide an illustration of how the media portrays Bush's cultural
sensitivity and global awareness). The article rdescribed an interaction where a
journalist asked Bush whether he would prefer Cricket or Bollywood, in terms of
India's major forms of entertainment. First Bush asked for the question to be
repeated, then laughed, then made a nonsensical remark about being interested in
cricket. Another journalist asked Bush "What is your earliest memory of India?"
Again, Bush had to have the question repeated. Presumably, never having had a
thought about India before becoming president, he was unable to answer the
question. Instead he offered some remark about what a great country India is.
I'm not reading into this, I'm just trying to relay the message the article was
intended to deliver.
Posted: Fri - March 3, 2006 at 06:25 PM