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During the three-day visit, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama also visited a memorial to one of the president’s personal heroes, Mahatma Gandhi, who used non-violent resistance to help India win freedom from Great Britain. The Obamas removed their shoes and tossed flower petals, as is customary.
They also visited a school in the capital New Delhi, where they danced with students celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali. The first lady got rave reviews. “Dancing Queen Rocks India,” was the headline of The Times of India, the world’s largest-circulation English-language newspaper. Mrs. Obama “demonstrated she could swing to desi beats with the best of them,” the paper reported.
A country on the rise
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First Lady Michelle Obama shows off her two-step with students in celebration of a Hindu festival. |
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The Republic of India is the second-most populous country in the world with more than 1.18 billion people (almost four times the number of people in the United States). The Indian subcontinent is historically known for its vast commercial and cultural wealth, but only recently joined the ranks of the “developed” countries.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) uses a set of classification systems that consider income, manufacturing levels, trade and integration into the global financial system to determine if a country is “developed” or “developing.” For example, the United States, Australia and most of Western Europe are considered “developed” countries with strong economies and stable governments. Much of sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia are classified as “developing” countries with fragile governments.
Over the last decade, India has made tremendous economic strides. India’s gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services a country produces in one year, rose 8.6 percent in the first three months of 2010. Next to China, India is the world’s fastest-growing economy and standards of living are improving rapidly. With the United States still reeling from a recession, India feels like a country on the rise.
Jobs and Pakistan are major themes of visit
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India’s population is second only to its Asian neighbor, China. |
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President Obama brought with him the leaders of major American companies to improve trade relations with the region.
“The primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and we can create jobs here in the United States of America,” Mr. Obama said last week.
American and Indian companies signed or are about to sign 20 deals worth about $10 billion that will help create more than 50,000 jobs at home, according to the New York Times.
Pradeep Udhas, president of the Indo-U.S. Chamber of Commerce, commented, “A two-way street between the U.S. and India has started. It’s important in terms of sending out a message to U.S. constituencies that India is not just some Third World country. It’s actually a huge market.”
But tensions over America’s friendship with India's chief rival, Pakistan, were close to the surface. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the last 60 years and remain at odds over the fate of the disputed region of Kashmir. In addition, at least parts of the 2008 terrorist attack in New Delhi that killed more than 100 people were planned in Pakistan.
At a town hall meeting, a woman asked, “Why is Pakistan so important an ally to America, so far as America has never called it a terrorist state?” President Obama answered that there is a big difference between violent extremist elements within Pakistan and the majority of the Pakistani people. Pakistan, which has a long border with Afghanistan, remains a critical ally in the war against the Taliban.
Security Council seat for India is unlikely
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The U.N. Security Council was formed in 1946 and meets at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. |
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Although the Indian people were happy to hear President Obama’s support for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, it is a difficult road to membership.
The U.N. Security Council was formed after World War II, and the winners of that conflict -- Russia, Britain, the United States, France and China -- became five permanent members with the power to veto policies made by the United Nations as a whole.
There is no clear procedure to become a permanent member. All five current permanent members would have to approve an amendment to the U.N. charter, and China has been hesitant to include a rival Asian country in the powerful group.
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Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
