Modern Democracy’s longest and most expensive sales and marketing campaign finally had its tumultous climax. One only hopes buyers remorse doesnt follow through for this climax comes on the back of inflated expectations of Change.
Defying stereotypes and electoral precedents Barack Hussein Obama is the President elect of the United States. While domestic political punditry in the USA splits hair on the symbolism versus reality of this historic moment, Nitin over at the Acorn sprinkles some much needed realism on the “Kaun Banega Obama” variety of obama-mania likely to grip the Indian nation.
When this nation sits down to assess the future of an Obama lead United States it is important to not lose sight of the Progressive activism that his presidency will come to represent.
President elect Obama’s understated intent to get activist on Kashmir should come as no surprise for we had seen hints of such activism early in his career when he activily lobbied for banning the sale of Indian Manufactured Beedis in the state of Illinois.
Offstumped congratulates Mr. Obama on a job well done with these words of caution from an earlier post for fellow Indians still in the grip of Obama-mania
For all those in India getting carried away with Obama-mania and those Indian Americans rooting for change they can believe in, you may well take your cue on what a Barack Obama Presidency will likely mean for India. With a history of “progressive activism” marked by bans and sanctions, that hope for change may end up just being a mirage for Kashmir may not be the first or last “cause” on the activist agenda of Obama progressive-liberalism.
Filed under: Dharma-debates, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Uncategorized
They are saying that America has got the first white president born to a black man.
My black friend is saying Obama is not black enough.
My other black friend is saying we gave america whitest possible black president.
Two Negative Shades of Obama vis a vis context to India….
a)Obama is going to take away any Tax Breaks from companies offshoring their work. This is going to impact indian economy.
b)Obama wants an active American involvement in Kashmir. What’s that supposed to mean?
1st, This could be just loose talk from obama, 2nd the indian lobby in america is probably the most powerful after isreali lobby and they wont stand for this ish, 3rd even if he does become a ‘beedi activist’ there is not much leverage the US will have vis a vis India, even after the nuke deal. No Indian party can give away kashmir, and then ever hope to win an election again. Its such a dumb racist argument, “stop killing nato troops, kill indian troops instead, we’ll look the other way, and let us kill them talibs, and you can ignore that”. Obama is a being way too naive, if he thinks he can push around India on anything.
What a stupendous achievement. I salute you Mr Obama. I’ll be blogging about him in couple of days. Time for Junior to take the hot seat in India like Obama.
Yos, I’m sorry for other day’s rants. I guess it was the effect of the cognac I had in that evening. I got frustrated. My channel is being run by Highcommand, virtually making me a bystander. Madam’s two lieutenants are calling the shots in my office. Ahmedji even warned me of consequences if Pragya doesn’t get noose around her neck in the court. As if that’s my responsibility? Basically, they need a Hindu equivalent so that both Afzal and Pragya can be hanged together.
Hard to categorize Obama right away. Will have to wait and see how things play out. With both arms of US federal power – the WH and Congress – in Dem hands, Obama’s potential for action and pressing ahead with unpalatable change is high indeed.
In the worst case, how prepared is India to hold its ground and not give an inch on matters that are of core interest to us – such as the territorial integrity and sovereignity of kashmir?
As for the outsourcing hullabaloo, things would have come to a head anyway. This tax-breaks driving outsourcing argument is way overstated. Most outsourced work is based on compelling cost savings considerations and MNCs and TNCs being what they are, it is hard to stop more higher end work such as R&D, drug development, services etc moving steadily to low cost locations. What really hurt US (blue collar) jobs more was the outsourcing of manuf jobs to China. India’s gain was the loss of the smaller but far more vocal white collar class.
Anyway, the writing is on the wall. The future of the world (and of America) is brown. Symbolic, historic anyway you look at it.
Welcome, brave new world!
Obama is decent enough; he thinks clearly and in steps, and it shows. Big problem is the premises he uses as a foundation for his thinking (in the Indo-Pak arena).
America has a knee-jerk habit of supporting the smaller of the two opponents in a fight, ergo, they think Pak must be the good guy in the Indo-Pak theatre, and therefore needs to be supported. However, the events of the past 8 years have made them think twice. However, it remains to be seen to what degree US has begun to think twice about Pak.
BO needs to listen to VP Joe Biden, who will tell him a lot about Packy-Stan, (as Joe calls it), Ambassador Blackwill, Youssef Bodansky, and some real historians who know what the story is on Kashmir. BO neeeds to avoid Madam Halfbright (Madeline Albright), Zbigniew Brezinski and other old-school cold war warriors.
We don’t need others to screw the Kashmir issue when we have morons like karunanidhi- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Karunanidhi_criticises_Hindu_practice_of_sporting_tilaks/articleshow/3677616.cms
Ashish,
America has a knee-jerk habit of supporting the smaller of the two opponents in a fight, ergo, they think Pak must be the good guy in the Indo-Pak theatre, and therefore needs to be supported.
You make it spund so quaint and innocent. Its not. its geopolitics we’re talking about and keeping a region on the simmer by supporting the weaker party (country/tribe/sect/group) against the stronger one thereby ensuring that no one party steamrolls the other and *finishes* the fight is an old British tactic used brilliantly successfully at different times in different theaters against different groups. The subcontinental partition gameplan is a classic example. So is London’s encouragement to China to invade Tibet lest the Soviets enter the area. The Brits played the role of ‘chief balancer’ for centuries on Continental Europe – always propping up the weaker party lest any one power become too powerful on the mainland. This notion also seeps into domestic politics in the erstwhile colonies and our share of laloos and mulayams and has its roots in the classic Brit divide and rule policy. America merely studied and refined these imperial gaming notions from the Brits.
So yes, realistically and from a realpolitik POV, no US prez or Chinese prez or KSA royal will allow Pakistan to collapse and disappear. Its value as a strategic counterweight to Indian arms, access and ambitions in central and west asia as well as on the larger world stage are too well known to be repeated here.
Sud,
I tried to make it sound as simple as I can. I could write reams on Pak, I have been on BRF and IF too long to not know what is going on! However, people are at a rudimentary stage here; people tend to ignore a longer post..I tend to skip the reasons and give just what needs to be done..
Sorry for digression.
Gujarat kicks off Vibrant Gujarat investor summit 2009.
Outsourcing should be stopped, out sourcing and the call centers have to be stopped at any cost most of the US $ are paid like without tax through google checks that also will be stopped. let us see how the Obama Administration sort it out. Indian lobby?? after Isreal. they are nothing in the US just only India shining.. that is about it. India have to look it own products and develop its own economy never depend on US economy to improve India.
[...] But what I can foresee happening in India besides what Yossarin call ‘The Rise of Beedi Activism’ … [...]
@Z…
Re. …” We don’t need others to screw the Kashmir issue when we have morons like karunanidhi- ”
I coudnt agree with you more, I am planning to put in an RTI application on LUNATIC ASYLUMS in Bharat, do we really have em? If we have em, who is in there?
Why, then why are guys like Karuna still out roaming free????
Gujjuman,
Thanks for the video Link.
Hope Narendra Modi’s services are available to entire India soon.
Whether BPO will be under scanner of Obama, the President, very near future will tell.
But LPO is booming and thriving. Legal Processes Outsourcing is keeping our legal fraternity very very busy these days.
Under BPO, America is actually creating more jobs for its people. Before bannning BPO to India, America needs to have another viable, economical, effective and financially rewarding alternative. US Secretary of Commerce, US business Chambers, will have to convince new US President not to dump the present set up, in US interests.
Kashmir is a strategic point of interest for USA. If they want to contain China, then India would be its main bet. Obama the candidate will have to shed some of his views now that he is Obama the President.
Someone praising Bush? Oh if the commies could but hear.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/132580/Lone-ranger-who-did-India-well.html
Dear Sirdesai,
>>What a stupendous achievement. I salute you Mr Obama.
If you salute Obama, why not have your Obama moment? Looky here: Obama is a black man elected the president of a largely white nation. What are you, uppercaste Maha Brahim, with your nepotistic positioning of your kayasth wife in your “media” outfit, doing in IBN? Get out man. Make a dalit woman the managing editor of your crappy channel, relocate your studios to the Congress Minority Morcha office, and seriously consdier retiring (along with your wife) on your ill-gotten stock options.
Just read the speeches of the Victor and the Vanquished and just think what a participating and true democracy canbe and is.
“The greatest moment in American history”
by V. Sundaram
http://newstodaynet.com/col.php?section=20&catid=33
@Z
Why take Karunanidhi seriously? If he is serious, he would have lead with example. He would have removed the yellow towel and his wives would have removed the tilak off their foreheads.
It is only good that Obama has become President. Bush was very clever, he knew what he wanted for himself from India and sold the nuclear deal so that India’s nuclear arsenal never reaches a level to threaten the US. Apart from that as Manmohan and his deputies loved Bush, India was swaying much towards the US at the cost of relations with Russia. What Obama proposes may be useful to Pakistan army and separatists but it is hardly of any use to the US. And as much as they push India as much as India will try to improve its relations with Russia and over time India may move towards practicing foreign policy based on purely solid benefits rather than useless ideologies and personal charm. Based on Obama’s comments on Kashmir we understand that all his rhetoric about ‘Change’ is based on sheer inexperience and overconfidence.
BHUTAN: Coronation of Fifth Gyalpo: Update No.73
By Dr. S.Chandrasekharan.
It is a pity that the Indian media has totally ignored an important event taking place today in Bhutan, a country that is closest and strategically very important to India….
Democrats are always pretty bad for India. They will again say India Pak = = and come up with their bs Wilsonian and globalist policies. Only good thing is Obama is somewhat of an outsider to the party. So he may be “independent”. Let’s see who Secretary of State and NSA are going to be.
Yes Democrats don’t “start” a war or “invade” a country. But they are much more intrusive and interventionist. Remember because of their sanctions and the constant shelling about 500,000 Iraqi civilians died during Clinton years. They ventured unnecessarily into Somalia that led to “Black Hawk Down”. They stirred up the hornet’s nest in Balkans because of which people are still suffering.
And now Obama talks about US interfering in Kashmir!! GOI should unequivocally tell him that it is an India-Pak bilateral issue so back off and mind other important businesses.
Bush was, is and will be India’s best friend for a loooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggg time to come!! Also God bless Condi, a great woman and Secretary of State. Even within US, I believe his only grave error in judgment was Iraq. But other than that he did pretty well. The current economic crisis is not his fault!!!