Perplexing aspects of Obama visit
The Economic Times
B.S. Raghavan / November 15, 2010

The US President, Mr Barack Obama, cannot be blamed if he viewed India as an integral part of his domestic strategy to lift the US economy from the pits into which it had fallen. It could help US fill up order books, utilise idle capacity and make a perceptible dent on the alarmingly high unemployment figures.

That was why he was so keen to give the very first priority, as soon as he landed, to the signing of business and defence deals worth $10-15 billion that had already been sewn up and repeatedly draw attention to the resultant creation of 55,000 jobs back home.

Indeed, in all his statements, he placed the onus squarely on India, acting in tandem with the US, to create jobs for his country and pull the American financial and economic chestnuts out of the fire.

He sounded like he would not take ‘No' for an answer when he called upon India to remove all tariff and non-tariff barriers to the entry of US business, throw open the financial and insurance services and free foreign direct investment from restrictions of any kind.

Puzzling part

Now the puzzling part: If only Mr Obama had timed his visit well before the mid-term US Congressional elections, he could have got the maximum mileage out of it in terms of putting his domestic critics on the back foot and cutting down the losses. Why did he choose to come after the elections in which all polls were unanimous he would receive a drubbing and why did he thereby expose himself to the double jeopardy of reduced authority and inability to cash in electorally on the economic gains from the visit?

If it was merely a question of making India happy with some generally worded initiatives and dialogues of no dramatic significance, offer of admission to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and Missile Technology Control Regime and the like, removal of certain Indian organisations from the Entities List (in which they should not have figured in the first place) and letting India purchase US high-technology Defence items, none of them was so earth-shaking that only the President in person on Indian soil should proclaim them with such great ceremony.

Even his supposed endorsement of India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC), over which everyone in India has gone into raptures, was a piece of artful legerdemain. He did not say: “The US strongly supports India's permanent membership of the UNSC”.

The formal Joint Statement puts it quaintly thus: “Prime Minister Singh welcomed President Obama's affirmation that, in the years ahead, the United States looks forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.”

Everyone can look forward to anything in the years ahead, even to the flooding of the planet with milk and honey, whether it happens or not.

Gate-crashing guest

Even this wishy-washy statement is hedged in by the condition that during its membership of the UNSC of the next two years, India should discharge its obligation “to ensure that (it) is effective, that resolutions are implemented and sanctions enforced” (Translation: To side with the US on Iran and North Korea or any other country that crosses its path) Only the naïve will take it as a straightforward endorsement.

Surely, he did not come all the way merely to weave a tapestry of words about India being ‘a model to the world' and about the virtues of global partnership and comprehensive engagement to promote peace, security and prosperity in the world? To put it bluntly: Did he have a hidden agenda?

If he had, it must have something to do with the gate-crashing guest at the head table at the private dinner hosted by the Prime Minister to the President. Who was he? Watch this space!