Behind Obama’s “historic” visit to India to witness republican parade!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff

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American presidents do not visit third world countries to enjoy funs. They do so only for gaining economic and strategic benefits from the host countries. Obviously, US president Obama with a characteristic innocent look, came to New Delhi to Indian PM Modi’s firm hugs with large entourage consisting of economic and military ministries, among others. .

 Clearly, it is not just the BJP government but also the former rulers Congress party is also behind the “historic” visit of Obama.

Of late, many Indians, especially enjoying life abroad seem to think that USA make it its foreign  policy goal to make India great and worse, and awful that Obama has come to India in order to strengthen  Indian dreams. .   

Similarly, many Kashmiri leaders who fight to get Kashmir from Indian occupation and hand over  to Pakistan for its control also thought Obama  was coming to India to secure freedom for Kashmiris so that they  can happily hand over  Kashmir to Islamabad and suffer along with other Pakistanis without dignity.

Fantasies always are interesting so long as they don’t hurt us. Indian corporate lords are in fact too happy about the Obama’s arrival with a big team to get money sumptuous from India. And they are ready to transfer cash to USA as before. After all, the financial lords in India know too well how to mint money in the name of India shine. With Obama around, Indian capitalists are bold enough to openly negotiate economic deals to benefit greatly.

BJP and PM are too happy because their cleaver moves yielded fruits for the Indian multinationals and big business houses.

US sanctions on companies in third countries, ease of doing business and intellectual property rights were among a dozen issues that figured at the India-US business forum known as IUCEO Forum where US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also present.

Indian corporate lords raised  issues related to bilateral ease of doing business, electronic cluster development and smart cities, innovation and skill development,  issues plaguing the business relationship between the two nations. Parekh, they said, also spoke on visa restrictions, the issue of Indian firms attracting US sanctions for investing in third countries like Russia and Iran, etc.. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) talked about India-US not having a free-trade agreement (FTA) hampering import of liquefied natural gas (LNG). India is seeking long term assured supply of natural gas from the US at competitive prices to meet its energy needs but Washington bars sale of LNG to nations with which it does not have FTA.

In the open discussion that followed, industrial magnets that in fact control Indian government and parliament like Birla and Mahindra group and Ambani spoke on challenges faced by Indian companies investing in the US as well as on defence and single window clearance and Indo-US collaboration in solar power. ICICI chief executive talked about the American tax evasion law, FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) as well as other banking issues. 

Director General of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said that US President Obama's visit as the Chief Guest at Republic Day signifies an inflection point in the US-India bilateral relationship and that enhanced cooperation is possible in areas such as defense, infrastructure, high technology, education, and energy

US interest in New Delhi is to get Indian territories for NATO terror operations and coordinate the US operations it undertakes in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Bush Jr had failed to achieve that goal after the Sept-11 hoax and chose Pakistan for the dirty job. Now Washington ‘s hard core strategist might feel  the Modi government could oblige USA because of Obama’s historic v trip without linking with Pakistan this time. . .

After inviting and coercing democrat Obama to visit to view the republican parade in New Delhi, India is too proud, rather boastful that President Obama got the rare distinction as the first U.S. president to attend the Republic Day celebrations and is also the first U.S. president to visit the country twice while in office. .

The issue of operationalising the bilateral landmark civil nuclear deal and cooperation in multiple sectors between India and US were understood to have figured as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh former Prime Minister with similar innocent look as that of Obama, met US President Barrack Obama in New Delhi. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma were also part of Congress delegation that met Obama and his wife Michelle at ITC Maurya Hotel where they are staying. Indian leaders underlined the importance of "inclusive and sustainable growth" for a society like India where larger number of people is still under the margin of subsistence and talked about "human face" of reforms. Singh also underlined the need for "closer economic partnership" between the two countries. The meeting of the Congress delegation with Obama was "very positive" and the two sides discussed a wide range of issues for cooperation in bilateral, regional and international arena.

A wide range of strategic affair issues came up for discussion including that of the threat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and the two sides shared their assessments and concerns during the meeting. 

Congress party claims Obama acknowledged the contribution of the previous UPA government, headed by Singh, in the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal. India and the US had yesterday broken the 7-year-old logjam in operationalising their landmark civil nuclear deal besides deciding to jointly produce military hardware including advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Obama.