aditya.agd wrote:To buy from US is as good as selling the sovereignty of India. Those guys know how to squeeze and our dhoti-netas may lose everything.
Congress and Christian Antony are hell bent to please USA..... God Save India
This has to be one of the most asinine comments I have seen here.
Not that there is any dearth of asinine comments otherwise as well.
OT here but I have had a few thoughts on the knee jerk anti US sentiment that exists in us Indians.
I would lay the blame on partly not having outgrown the years when we were a relatively poor country with really no ability to influence events through the normal levers of power and therefore we would use the only weapon we had, which was lofty ideals and talk.
There are other legitimate reasons (and rightly so from our point of view) of opposing the US as well, particularly how the US and the UK have dealt with us on the Pakistan issue, but here I would quote a Chinese example below on how they have partnered and opposed the same US even though they fought a war with US.
I appreciate the call taken in 40s, 50s, 60s etc about commenting against US and their poodle UK etc on the basis of the typical policy that US followed then and also the fact that those were the days when socialism/ communism offered an alternate to the capitalism and was also sounding as a successful way to develop a country. And their is no reason to deny how some of the policies on economic issues that we followed helped us create heavy industries, dams, developing capabilities in Space etc. because only Government was capable of investing the money required and the private sector was too small to do so.
Further, Nehru et al also went for the Non-alignment policy, at that time, correctly in my opinion, because we were too big (even though poor) to permanently belong to any particular camp and therefore in the future were likely to have our own ways and means of doing something. Further it was in our interest to not align completely with any party and therefore try to get the best of both worlds. Although there were times when this policy did make us fall between the stools, but more often than not it proved to be a useful and beneficial policy to have. Just one example - after China war, we were helped by both the West and the Soviets - each for their own reasons - but that is hardly the issue - that is real life. There are no free lunches.
Now that we have grown up, our economic capacity is rising, we can spend more on defence, our per capita income is increasing, the quality of the life of the average Indian citizen is getting and going to get better (barring the normal pains of developing a country of India's historic poverty and multifarious issues), we are going to be able to influence the events in the world by not only "statesman like" words but also action.
Now, to be able to influence the world, hold our own in a world of multiple powers, and a still very powerful US (though relatively less powerful now than anytime after WW II) and protect our interests, we will learn to play a very fleet-footed game at the high table of Geo-politics. And to do all that the first thing we will have to learn is to believe that we can hold our own and be confident about our ability to do so.
Yet, the one of the biggest (actually the biggest probably) issue one sees is our inability to outgrow the defensive and therefore reactionary (usually) nature of approaching the game of Power Politics. Although some people may hate me for saying this but if we have to learn to play the game, we should learn from the Chinese. Chinese, because here is a country which has always played the power game better than India. They are so well versed with
realpolitiks that they dont even consider the niceties of the moral play unless it is useful to their interests. They are probably among the best at this - comparable to the great-powers like US, UK (erstwhile) and Soviets (erstwhile, till they come back after they work on their economy and their population/ people development).
I wrote the following earlier in a different thread, I think, but I believe it is worth writing again.
Just look at what the Chinese did. Here was a country, among the poorest, after they became PRC in 1949, yet fighting a superpower (US) to a standstill in the Korean peninsula in 1953. Then look at what they did -
within 18 years, they were
PARTNERING with the same US, to go against the Soviets, i
n 1971, when the famous Kissinger visit happened to China, mid-wifed by the Pakistanis. And then US and China became great friends. So this is a country which, in less than a generation had grown enough hair, in a manner of words, to start playing a completely opposite game and dumped their friends the Soviets, who had helped Mao in his own revolution.
And thereafter, whenever it has suited the Chinese to partner with the US, they have done so, without shivering in their boots about how US will f..k their happiness and crying hoarse, and whenever it has not suited the Chinese, they have not partnered with the US. Bottomline they hold their own yet don't get all "shivering" when it comes to having relations with the US. They are a confident nation that knows how to play the game.
Now let us come to India. Again, I wrote this earlier as well. Please note -
even when we were at the
worst of our times i.e. after 1962 war, when we had been defeated by the Chinese, food situation was bad, economy was in any case growing very slowly and we were taking help from US, UK and the Russians, and the British and the Americans were pressing us to give concessions to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue,
yet Nehru, Swaran Singh and his team and others,
did not give in to the US and UK.
So we were able to protect our interests even then, and bloody hell, we should be able to believe that we can do so now as well. Only confident nations which know how to play the game at high table are able to hold their own. They partner even with their worst enemies when it suits them - look at the Chinese in 1971, and screw then when the times are different - look at how the Chinese have been behaving with the US in the last 3 years post the economic downturn in various forums including the one where reduction in carbon emissions were being discussed in Copenhagen last year.
Mr. K. S. Bajpai, erstwhile Foreign Secretary etc. writes a lot on this inability of ours to outgrow our defensive nature which makes us react to anything vis-a-vis the US unlike how the Chinese have dealt with US (
partner as well as oppose based on protecting one's interests). Similarly late Mr. K. Subrahmanyam had been trying to teach us to not get knee jerk reactions to anybody, what to talk of US.
I think it will take us a lot of time to learn to do that. Things are changing but not fast enough. US does exactly what any Super power will do - protect and forward its interest. What to talk of US, any self-respecting nation would do so. Both UK and France have been trying to protect the interests of their companies - Vodafone, Areva etc., Chinese are doing that - Huawei etc., Russians are doing that. And that is what India should do - when it suits our interest we should partner with the US, when it doesn't we shouldn't. Nothing else matters. So we should buy the aircraft/s which suit our interests. And, I humbly submit that there is no need to panic or react if the US is trying to hardsell its planes. Every country does that.
Bottomline is that interest are permanent as is the cliche most often quoted. And unless we learn to not react in a knee jerk fashion we will continue to be looked at as a poodle on the high tables.
Finally, my intention is not to hurt anyone. My apologies in advance if it is perceived as that.
Best regards.
If you ask me i would rather go for the latter one
hehehe... Just kidding. But, maybe our GoI does not mind such a scenario. 
If the opposition gets too noisy, a mysterious naxal or terrorist attack diverts the public mind... a cabinet reshuffle takes place in the mean time... a few opposition MPs are paid off (from the proceeds of MMRCA loots) and the no-confidence vote is overcome easily... things go back to normal until some whistle blower (not happy with his cut) decides to throw GoI under the bus 
