India-US Relations : News and Discussion

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 24 Jan 2015 05:04

What do you guys think of Ms. Tulsi Gabbard a native (of USA) SDRE in the foreign affairs committee of USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Gabbard

VenkataS · Post by **VenkataS** » 24 Jan 2015 05:34

Tulsi is not SDRE. She has a white mother and Polynesian father. Her mother who is a practicing Hindu introduced her to Hinduism (AC Bhaktivedanta school I believe). She was raised a Hindu and is a practicing and proud Hindu (first Hindu member of congress). She used the Bhagavad Gita for her swearing in ceremony.

She served 2 tours of duty and is in the Hawaiian Army national guard. She is very PRO India and has visited India recently for 2 weeks.
She has a lot of potential in the political arena. Her being in the foreign affairs committee is good for us.

Tuvaluan · Post by **Tuvaluan** » 24 Jan 2015 05:38

That is a very good development if Ms. Gabbard is in the US Foreign relations committee. Given her general background, I think she can provide some valuable input in the context of US-India relations.

rgsrini · Post by **rgsrini** » 24 Jan 2015 05:38

As usual Rajeev does a great job in analyzing the visit and the possibilities.
Good/Bad/Ugly: What will Obama's visit be like for India?

arun · Post by **arun** » 24 Jan 2015 11:34

Op-Ed by Michael Kugleman of a US based think tank in the New York Times titled “Fix the Link to Pakistan, Bond With India”.

Author makes an erroneous assumption. India does not expect the US to sort out the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. What India does need is for the US to stop providing assistance to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which invariably is used by the Islamic Republic to annoy India, despite the US themselves being occasional victims of the Islamic Republic’s belligerent actions:

Fix the Link to Pakistan, Bond With India

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 24 Jan 2015 15:02

O'Bomber's Agra Taj visit cancelled.What gives? Worried about security?

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 24 Jan 2015 15:10

Philip wrote:O'Bomber's Agra Taj visit cancelled.What gives? Worried about security?

maybe the additional mounting expenses for his security that the US govt will be paying for.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 24 Jan 2015 15:26

Animal Times: O'Bomber's visit.Flash!

The barber's second cousin's wife's paramour ,employed as a waiter in the ASI canteen has revealed confidentially that the real reason for the cancellation of the trip to Agra is that O'Bomber's massive armourplated "tank" cannot pass through the narrow gateway of the Taj,as the US pres. cannot be exposed in the open and walk to the plinth of the Taj without protection.The US demand that the doorway be widened or a part of the wall be torn down to make way for the presidential cavalcade was opposed by the babus of the ASI who are the last word on anything connected with India's most famous historic monument. ASI babus were also appalled that a fleet of accompanying armoured cars would be swarming across the Taj lawns,SAM missiles and AA guns were demanded to be erected around the dome and on the Taj's marble plinth,which they calculated would not be able to take the load of such heavy weaponry,etc.If a missile was launched,the hot exhaust gases would scar the marble forever they said. O'Bomber's security detail has allegedly refused protection and transportation by elephant,camel,horse,donkey (Democratic Party symbol) or even a golf cart. The US Secret Service has drawn attention to what happened to Princess Diana after she visited the Taj unprotected.She died in an "accident " a few years later!

An acceptable solution was devised by the PM's host team who have decided to create an indoor hologram of the Taj and all its features for the visiting US pres.,afeared by his minders of being attacked by sundry ungodlies during his visit.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Jan 2015 15:45

Philip wrote:O'Bomber's Agra Taj visit cancelled.What gives? Worried about security?

No, he wants to go to Saudi Arabia to meet the new King. It won't look all right if he cannot visit, having come all the way to India, not to visit its staunchest ally (though some rifts are seen lately) when there is a change of Kingship.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 24 Jan 2015 15:45

Anantha wrote:Unfortunately Ombaba's daughters are not coming to India due to school year in full swing. It could have been good soft power projection.

Oooooooo!!! What a shame! Hope their dog is coming, so that Indians can kneel before it and swoon about its hairdo?

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 24 Jan 2015 17:25

Guys, esepciallly those in India like DoCJi, am I right when I sense based on DDM that there is a round-the-cock hoopla in India over Obama's visit. Anybody following US news media? I mean TV? Other than the chutiya kugleman on NYT, I have't seen much. I think this visit, like many others before is waste of time.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 24 Jan 2015 17:45

CRamS wrote:Guys, esepciallly those in India like DoCJi, am I right when I sense based on DDM that there is a round-the-cock hoopla in India over Obama's visit. Anybody following US news media? I mean TV? Other than the chutiya kugleman on NYT, I have't seen much. I think this visit, like many others before is waste of time.

The US will not waste many millions of $$$ just for a photo op. The true reasons may not be in the public domain yet.

We need to be careful. A lot of things can fly under the radar because of an inexperienced / over eager to please govt. Meaning things that may be disclosed only later when it becomes a fait accompli because the amrekis have pandered to a "strong" govt which "can act independently" without "upsetting" allies.

This frequent contact with the amreki president and bhaichara, specially when dealing with a power that has egg on it's face from numerous failed global adventures and desperately seeking to establish it's relevance again is a bit off putting and daunting. You need a long spoon to sup with the devil.

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 24 Jan 2015 17:53

Has BK's latest been posted here. Watch out for what may get signed in the name of Indo-US cooperation.

Bending over Backwards

In his pronouncements, US president Barack Obama has indicated that American companies will be actively discouraged from investing in production plants abroad, offshoring operations, and exporting jobs; Indian pharmaceutical industries would come under the intellectual property rights hammer, and the H1B visa regime will not be loosened. Taken cumulatively, they pretty much muck up prime minister Narendra Modi’s plans for productively courting America.

The serious clash of economic interests only highlights the even more severe collision of strategic interests which, despite the good intentions of both sides, will ensure that, as in the past, only a limited India-US partnership will accrue. This reality, not fully grasped by Delhi, is compounded by the fact that the Indian government operates without any definite ideas about what the national interest is or where it lies on particular issues, whence a lot is negotiated away in return for nothing.

One expected Modi to not turn national interest into a fungible commodity as his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, had done and, as a canny insider in the evolving global politics in which India’s centrality in an Asian security scheme to contain China is readily conceded, that he would extract maximum concessions from the US while surrendering little. This hope is belied by the list of giveaways in the offing.

On climate, Modi has apparently agreed to 20% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, bringing India in line with the Western consensus at the upcoming Paris summit. This presumes India can skip the smokestack industrial stage and absorb the inordinately high cost of going in massively for clean energy. It begs the question: Where are the resources for such rapid switching to come from?

Modi’s eagerness to buy enriched uranium-fuelled American reactors of untested design that the US is unwilling to risk installing on its own territory is equally puzzling. Especially because the contemplated executive action to get around provisions in the Civilian Nuclear Damage Liability Act 2010 imposing “unlimited” liability on nuclear technology suppliers is subversive of this Act, which the BJP voted for in Parliament and, which in fact represented a congealing of the opposition to the 2008 civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the US. But consider the proposed solution: An insurance pool is to be created by the public sector General Insurance Corporation (GIC), meaning that the Indian people will be the guarantors of untested foreign nuclear technology and in case it proves faulty and leads to an accident, will have to pay up for the thermal and radiation deaths in the hundreds of thousands and for damage to public and private property running into billions of rupees in case of a nuclear accident traced to faulty foreign nuclear technology beyond the measly $300 million the supplier company coughs up per the Convention on Supplemental Compensation Manmohan Singh hurriedly signed. With the perpetrators thus going scot-free, it could be the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy plus all over again.

For surrendering so much India gets the promise of entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Though why Modi is keen on joining these groups, considering they are means to drag India into the 1968 non-proliferation treaty net, is a mystery. Indeed, by not buying foreign reactors or joining NSG India can at any time resume testing to obtain a credible thermonuclear deterrent, export without any restraint its highly evolved natural uranium reactors and technology under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and the billions of dollars saved from not buying the inordinately expensive foreign reactors, could be invested in realising the three-stage 1955 Homi Bhabha plan for energy self-sufficiency, by developing on a war-footing the indigenous advanced pressurised heavy water, breeder, and thorium reactors. Indeed, the GIC “insurance pool” could be more imaginatively deployed to insure Indian companies producing indigenous nuclear reactors and ancillary hardware and erect any number of power stations in the country and to export to friendly states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This will spur Indian industry, generate more industrial employment, increase the value of India’s share of global trade, and more vigorously push the “Make in India” policy than putting Indian money in American pockets.

Modi buying into the MTCR is still more troubling. It will mean abandoning the option of paying back China for nuclear missile arming Pakistan by transferring nuclear missile and related technologies to countries on its periphery and compelling Beijing to share in our “nuclear nightmare”. But if pleasing Washington is priority then the rumour doing the rounds gains substance that Avinash Chander was kicked out of DRDO because he was pushing for the 12,000km intercontinental ballistic missile frowned upon by Washington to complement its disapproval of India’s acquiring high-yield thermonuclear warheads/weapons.

The one bright spot is the military-to-military links the 2005 defence cooperation framework has delivered with joint exercises. Its extension to 2025 will mean more of the same laced with billion-dollar buys of US hardware (such as C-17 and C-130J airlifters), a transactional slant Washington is satisfied with. As regards, military technology transfer, Delhi seems reconciled to the US policy of starting low, going slow—hand-launched drones and surveillance modules—as the way to go!

Acknowledging the global power shift, America has been inclined to pass the baton of the predominant power to China in the manner the “weary Titan” Great Britain did to the US during the turn of the previous century. Such a policy was proposed by Obama’s deputy secretary of state James Steinberg and enunciated in 2008-2009 as the doctrine of “strategic reassurance”. It led to the “G-2” concept and president Xi Jinping’s conceiving of “core relations” to, in effect, run the international system. This is the strategic disjunction keeping India-US ties from becoming intimate. Because to brighten the prospects of a possible US-China condominium, Washington since the 1990s has been systematically hindering India strategically, hugely complicating the Indian national security calculus. In the circumstances, bending over backwards to please the US will only invite derision, not win India respect, even less international standing. It is a lesson that remains unlearned.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 24 Jan 2015 19:05

Reminding everyone again, Obama Visit is by Modi, for Modi and of Modi.

RoI needs to be measured by how much it favors Modi. Rest all is maya onlee.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Jan 2015 19:14

SSridhar wrote:
Philip wrote:O'Bomber's Agra Taj visit cancelled.What gives? Worried about security?
No, he wants to go to Saudi Arabia to meet the new King. It won't look all right if he cannot visit, having come all the way to India, not to visit its staunchest ally (though some rifts are seen lately) when there is a change of Kingship.

oooh! and what about the stinchiest ally in the neighborhood to pay homage to those school kids butchered by pakibans?

mr. gin, his saudi visit could have been after agra visit. what gives the change? this is nonsense when people measure and treat massan behavior from SDRE-indic-ness. they don't behave like that. it is only bijnej.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 24 Jan 2015 19:16

There is a possibility that Ombaba will have a stop over in Pakistan while heading for SArabia, Clinton style !

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Jan 2015 19:18

ombaba kids don't have any serious tests/exams now.. even then, they could take one specially arranged. what is that? the whole modi-ombaba meet is because of those kids contention having never visited India.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 24 Jan 2015 20:16

SaiK wrote: mr. gin, his saudi visit could have been after agra visit. what gives the change? this is nonsense when people measure and treat massan behavior from SDRE-indic-ness. they don't behave like that. it is only bijnej.

It does not matter if his kids and mother-in-law are not coming. It might be business for Mr.O and US of A. It is business for India too and that business is enhancing Modi's image and potential to do good for India.

Every feather on Modi's hat, is better for Modi. What is good for Modi, NOW, is good for India. Of course, Modi should not give away 'things' without negotiations or getting 'things' in return.

And, I am not sad that he cancelled Agra visit. Taj Mahal should not be the BE-ALL END-ALL symbol of India. So big deal, however if he wanted to see it and missed it - then so be it. As long as there is no deeper intent (or arm twisting) that is being conveyed.

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 24 Jan 2015 21:37

I am beginning to think that Modi overplayed his style by inviting ombaba. It is not a conducive time for both the leaders. But Modi has always proved me wrong in my pessimism about him. Fingers crossed.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Jan 2015 21:57

i hope he has this 'hidden agenda' suddenly surprising the msm world. such is the fact that nothing comes out of it, he does not look stupid as failed as public is not aware of expectations.

clever, astute and shrewd. it ij all okay in bijnej as long some positive result happen. continuous negatives, will put him on the radar.. so, as long as it is bojitive.. keep it going.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 24 Jan 2015 23:07

Since it came up in the "New Jim Crow" discussion, another theory of why people might use drugs in the face of severe legal penalties:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-ha ... _hp_ref=tw

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 25 Jan 2015 00:24

SSridhar wrote:
Philip wrote:O'Bomber's Agra Taj visit cancelled.What gives? Worried about security?
No, he wants to go to Saudi Arabia to meet the new King. It won't look all right if he cannot visit, having come all the way to India, not to visit its staunchest ally (though some rifts are seen lately) when there is a change of Kingship.

Sir, but why cut short the India visit? Considering the usual state of the union address to the US Congress was held a few days in advance to accommodate the India visit, Ombaba could have extended his trip by a day, but he didn't. Just taking a quick detour to stop by Riyadh will be good optics for their relationship with KSA, and is probably expected of him. But cutting short the India visit to accommodate KSA stop over signals to India that even the 3 day visit is not worth it. Maybe some pre-visit negotiations have stalled, or end up unsatisfactorily from the US' PoV?

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 25 Jan 2015 00:29

ShauryaT wrote:On climate, Modi has apparently agreed to 20% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, bringing India in line with the Western consensus at the upcoming Paris summit. This presumes India can skip the smokestack industrial stage and absorb the inordinately high cost of going in massively for clean energy. It begs the question: Where are the resources for such rapid switching to come from?

Sounds like smoke and mirrors from BK. India has been willing to negotiate a cut in growth of emissions, not cut in absolute emissions, in exchange for its own pound of flesh, e.g. open access to clean technology IP. Modi's too focussed on growth first, to have such claims held against him. You're talking about the same person who has been diligently smoothening restrictive environmental norms in order to drive industrial development, for the past several months.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Jan 2015 00:36

Supposedly the US was unhappy about the security arrangements in and around the Taj in UP. Clinton was the last US president to visit the Taj. The last time I was at the Taj a couple of years, the local officials were a$$holes about its religious significance. Not simply to give it the historical and archeological significance and respect it deserves, but to me it appeared the local bodies there want to make it some sort of religious shrine which it never was.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Jan 2015 06:26

arshyam wrote:Sir, but why cut short the India visit? Considering the usual state of the union address to the US Congress was held a few days in advance to accommodate the India visit . . . signals to India that even the 3 day visit is not worth it. Maybe some pre-visit negotiations have stalled, or end up unsatisfactorily from the US' PoV?

arshyam, if Obama was so accommodative as to advance the traditional state of union address, where is the problem if he misses a site-seeing trip to Agra? What would have mattered is if the business end of the programme was curtailed. I see perfectly no reason to be upset with cancellation of the Agra trip.

As for the question if he could have accommodated his trip to KSA by extending his overall trip by a day or so, we cannot comment on that without knowing his subsequent engagements and how they would be affected by an unexpected delay.

Added later: Taj visit dropped after talks - Sandeep Joshi in The Hindu.

Denying speculation that the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle to the Taj Mahal was cancelled due to security reasons, security officials said it was dropped as Mr. Obama had to leave early for Saudi Arabia to condole the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

Top officials in the Union Home Ministry and the Uttar Pradesh government said the plan was changed by the U.S. government in consultation with India. A White House statement stated that “the President regrets that he will be unable to visit Agra during this trip.”

Kashi · Post by **Kashi** » 25 Jan 2015 07:58

Well good for the residents of Agra- in anticipation of Obama visit, the administration launched some degree of cleaning drive- Yamuna too was cleaned up and with PoTus not turning up, Agrawaalaahs will not have face travel and trade restrictions and they have a cleaner looking city!!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 25 Jan 2015 08:36

Especially when KSA is itself not mourning King Abdullah!!!

ManSingh · Post by **ManSingh** » 25 Jan 2015 08:52

Could be a simple case of him wanting to to avoid being looked at as a muslim back home.

There is a running feud by a certain Azam khan who wants to turn over Taj Mahal from ASI to the waqf board and allowing muslims to perform prayers 5 times a day...

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/azam ... 02751.html

This is rumoured to be the very reason he didn't visit golden temple on his last visit as covering his head would have conveyed a wrong image.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 25 Jan 2015 09:33

SS would have asked for a complete lock down of the place , which GoI might not have agreed

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 25 Jan 2015 09:45

Anyhow, POTUS have arrived in Delhi and was received By PM Modi at Palam.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 25 Jan 2015 09:47

ramana wrote:Especially when KSA is itself not mourning King Abdullah!!!

Ramana,

Look at all the "leaders" who have traveled to sand castle. The chocolate king (yes, since the mariupol news furrin-returned), the good/bad sharifs, the syrian moderates. This was a case of business before pleasure. Non travel to Paris after Charlie hebdo was already rankling, BO admin would have been accused of abandoning foreign policy altogether if the collected lot had been greeted by hand holding at the Taj.

ps -- Taj is not mecca to Americans. They all want to go see it egypt pyramid style. BO has no fear of being called X. Those fears are now reserved for Ms Clinton types who will remain hibernated until Spring.

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 25 Jan 2015 09:56

@sagarikaghose
Welcome @BarackObama !Hope u'll share with our leadership your vision of vibrant civil rights, a free press and political reconciliation!

=============

:-(
Our "star" journo is asking Obama to involve and *pressurize* Indian leadership. Lutyens Delhi seriously needs purging. I shudder when I think about the number of JaiChands in that tiny 10X10 Sq. Km area. These guys will not hesitate to join hands with pakis or even ISIS to settle their scores against evil yindoos.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Jan 2015 10:22

ramana wrote:Especially when KSA is itself not mourning King Abdullah!!!

ramana, wahhabism does not encourage mourning and the King would have been interred in an unmarked grave. But, the world leaders are going to KSA to meet the new King, not mourning.

Tuvaluan · Post by **Tuvaluan** » 25 Jan 2015 10:30

This is what the genocidal piece of rat excrement Zbigniew Brzyzenski has to say about US-India relations:

"Pres Obama’s India trip is an important mission: to build US-India ties but not at the expense of US strategic ties with China and Pakistan."

Clearly the mofo has wet dreams of the US-China duopoly controlling the world, like he did in the 70s and 80s.

And in other news, renowned sooth asian exbert and paki wannabe Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Mental Institution is now an India expert.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 25 Jan 2015 10:34

@CNNIBNBreaking India-US nuclear deal finalised, announcement likely at Modi-Obama joint conference: sources

Prem Kumar · Post by **Prem Kumar** » 25 Jan 2015 10:36

CNN-IBN tweeted that the India-US nuke deal finalized & announcement likely soon (whatever that means). I fear some of BK's warnings may come true.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Jan 2015 10:40

Prem Kumar wrote: . . . I fear some of BK's warnings may come true.

I do not think any Indian government, much less this one, would have allowed intrusive tracking by the US. On the question of liability, some 'innovative' deal might have been struck. In any case, the Japanese still have a final say on this, don't they?

Prem Kumar · Post by **Prem Kumar** » 25 Jan 2015 10:52

I don't know the reason behind Modi's rush to go out of the way, invite Obama & sign this. I thought the Indo-US nuke deal was given a quiet, Osama-style burial. At any rate, too early to judge .......

arun · Post by **arun** » 25 Jan 2015 10:53

SSridhar wrote:. . . . In any case, the Japanese still have a final say on this, don't they?

Besides the Japanese, the American nuclear hardware producing business as well given that the US Government does not have the power to force them to do business with India.

The above then brings me to the question as to why the US Government has been so vigorous in it's opposition to India's Nuclear Liability laws when they are not directly involved? I can understand the French and Russians being interested given their invovement in their domestic nuclear industries, but not the American's.

Tuvaluan · Post by **Tuvaluan** » 25 Jan 2015 10:59

I think it is the other way around, even though Toshiba owns the nuclear energy wing of westinghouse. It was reported that the Japanese did not make any progress with India -- they outsourced the negotiation to US. It is likely the US would have not allowed Japanese to sell their superior nuclear plants to India if India did not buy any of the american westinghouse plants. Japanese and americans are on the same page as far as civilian nuclear stuff goes, AFAICT.