Author: Jay Bhattacharjee
Publication: Niticentral.com
Date: February 8, 2015
URL: http://www.niticentral.com/2015/02/08/president-obamas-colonial-rantings-bad-case-delhi-belly-300134.html

President Obama (or POTUS, as he is popularly referred to, in the US and increasingly in our shores) is rapidly emerging as a statesman who does not seem to be keen on being remembered in the text-books of the world’s two most prominent democracies as one of the main architects of a long-delayed entente between them. Either that, or he has an incredibly inept bunch of advisors and staffers who are living in a topsy-turvy world of their own. Or worse, his core group is deliberately leading their leader up the garden path. The fourth (and possibly the last) explanation is that POTUS, like his British colonial predecessors visiting the Jewel in the Crown, suffered from a bad attack of Delhi belly and did not realise what he was blabbering about.

The problem with any of these explanations is that they do not give a logical and satisfactory explanation for what Obama babu said. His Delhi pontification could have been overlooked and attributed to one of these four causes. But to add Tabasco on a fresh wound more than a week afterwards, is, surely something that defies all logic. That is logic, as seen from our shores. However, it may be logical when seen from the banks of the Potomac and from the Oval Office in the White House.

What irks this writer is that I had taken the trouble to write to POTUS through an article in this portal only two weeks ago. I was not naive to think that my views would reach the great man, but my thoughts echoed those of millions of my fellow citizens. I reminded him that I was one of his original admirers and that he now had an opportunity to craft history. And, indeed, the interaction between our two countries seemed to have got off to a flying start when Air Force One landed in Palam and the two leaders, Narendra Modi and Obama, displayed rare bonhomie and camaraderie.  Thereafter, everything went according to the script carefully crafted by the principal mandarins of the two countries. And the euphoria lasted till POTUS fired his missile in the Delhi citizens’ meeting. Observers in East Asia picked up on this snafu, and one had to remind them that waltzing with the American bear required a lot of skill which the Indian netas and babus clearly lack.

The Washington homily of Obama needs to be carefully assessed and dissected in these shores. The repeat offence took place after POTUS made a short visit to Saudi Arabia on his way back to the promised land from Delhi. Although the Saudi interregnum was ostensibly a condolence visit after the death of the earlier monarch, POTUS clearly picked up a bit of the Wahabi-Salafist ideology during his brief sojourn in the desert kingdom. The First Lady indeed made a bold statement by refusing to cover her head, as her hosts’ protocol would have enjoined her to do, but POTUS was bitten by the same bug as many of his predecessors had been. This included George Dubya Bush whose track record before and after the 9/11 attacks is now emerging as one of the most infamous in US history. In fact, there is enough evidence that the Bush family was guilty of a massive cover-up operation to hide the Saudi links with the 9/11 perpetrators.

All of this is important if we want to understand the influence that global Islam wields in the Oval Office. In addition, the US Administration and POTUS have the tentacles of the Southern US fundamentalist Christian fire-eaters deeply entrenched in their governance system. This is a deadly cocktail which wields enormous influence in determining American policy, both domestic and international. To expect an American President to disregard these two forces would be most naive of us. Grand notions like democracy, shared governance values, rule of law, cultural affinities etc pale into insignificance in the face of this real-politik.

Nevertheless, this type of aberrant behaviour on the part of a guest who has just partaken of our heartfelt hospitality and genuine affection is deeply disturbing and indeed offensive.  I am aware relations between countries and nations are based on much more complex factors, but there has to be space for simple variables like truth and morality. Call me old-fashioned, indeed naive, POTUS, but you have really crossed the line on this one.

Yes, in your discourse, you have referred to the dark underbelly of American society, specially its all-pervasive racism and institutionalised state violence against non-whites, specially Afro-Americans. However, it sounded rather contrived and a bit of a red herring to hide your main salvo. In any case, how would the US people, the Government and you have reacted if Prime Minister Modi had launched a broad-side on this subject just after returning from his American visit a few months ago? Come on, brother Obama, give us a break, as they say in your part of the world. Or better still, there is moonshine and moonshine. This is dangerous stuff you are peddling. And that is not because I disagree with what you are saying. But because it is just so incorrect, factually and ethically.

Just try two counts of false facts that you propagated. There was much more communal violence during all the years and decades of the Congress Raj. The incidence of inter-religious strife has been considerably less during the NDA-BJP interregnums at the Centre and in individual States. If your inner coterie stopped buying the stuff peddled by the likes of Teesta Setalvad, John Dayal and company, you will realise how egregious you sounded. To add insult to grievous injury, you spouted your diatribe against India and the Indic faiths after you chose not to say anything to the paragons of tolerance and empathy in Riyadh. This, my man, was so gross, that it is unbelievable.

In any case, it is time to wrap up. The last letter I wrote to you spelt out your choices : carve your name in history or notch up frequent-flyer miles. It seems you are headed for the latter, unless you do a radical course-correction. And the latter seems more and more improbable.

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