If US president Barack Obama were an analyst, he has said things about India that are pretty valid in his recent interview to the Press Trust of India. Many Indians may indeed be inclined to agree with him even on the issue of the “deteriorating investment climate” in the country and of India still being a pretty hard place to do business in. But Mr Obama is hardly a disinterested observer.
As the head of the world’s most powerful nation that has a history of bullying, hectoring and invading countries that think and act differently from what it expects, President Obama has quite appropriately laid himself open to censure from all quarters in this country. His reported statements have been criticised by political parties across the spectrum and also by the nation’s leading industry and business associations. The government has not bristled under the collar as it might have in another era, but it has been made quite clear that the US President’s views are out of line.
The reason for this is that Mr Obama’s opinions will be seen as a way to pressure India to open up to American business and industry in specific sectors such as retail. If there is anything that is consistently true of India since its Independence, it is its complete aversion to being lectured to, and the faintest whiff that another country deems it fit to seek to influence its domestic agenda — economic, political or in international affairs. It is a pity that the American leader did not take this into account.
Particularly after the India-US civil nuclear agreement went through under President George W. Bush, Mr Obama’s predecessor became the American President to be viewed in the friendliest terms in this country. No US leader had ventured that far in going with India. Mr Obama, in contrast, began with a handicap, and India-US ties went somewhat quiet with the appointment of America’s first AfPak special envoy, who was seen here as having ideas that brought in the Kashmir question into the Afghan equation. Acting wisely, Washington retraced its steps, and Mr Obama gave signs since then of having a much better grasp of the Indian reality and Indian sensitivities. He also went out of his way sometimes to be solicitous. The latest remarks, however, may blur that impression somewhat without the US deriving any advantage from that situation.
Mr Obama should have let American business do all the talking instead of stepping in himself. The way he has spoken, it appears he has been given an insufficient appreciation of Indian political processes and track record. The Indian leadership should just make it clear that it chooses its own destinations and pace.