NEW DELHI: While praising the sagacity and policies of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the first volume of his biography, former United States President Barack Obama notes that Singh owes his position to Head of Congress Sonia Gandhi and he had been chosen because he posed no political threat to Rahul Gandhi, who was seen as the waiting leader.
“(Singh) owed his position to Sonia Gandhi … More than one political observer believed that he had chosen Singh precisely because, as an elderly Sikh with no national political base, he posed no threat to his … son Rahul, whom he was grooming to take over Congress party“Obama says in the book.
Obama’s book, ‘A Promised Land’, is an account of his presidential years and has drawn attention in India for much of what he has said about his interactions with Indian leaders. He has spoken of his childhood familiarity with Ramayana and Mahabharata, who can do a dal and keema and enjoys Bollywood movies.
He holds Singh affectionately – “Singh seems to me to be wise, attentive and scrupulously honest” – but expresses doubts about the succession plan. Singh was also her first guest at a state banquet in 2009. The banquet is not mentioned in the book.
The book highlights some of the twists and turns of relations between India and the United States in those years. For example, as a senator in 2006, Obama introduced what would become known as a “killer amendment” to the nuclear deal between India and the United States, later known as the Hyde Act. He even received a visit from then-Ambassador Ronen Sen, accompanied by then-Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, Deputy Secretary S Jaishankar and Raminder Jassal at their offices in Washington.
The Indian delegation was unable to move it from its amendment, but it was rejected. Yet under his watch, India’s hard-won nuclear exemption in the Nuclear supplier group (NSG) was diluted when the guidelines were changed to allow for ‘enrichment and reprocessing’ rights only Npt members.
On his first visit to China in 2009, Obama showed a sincere desire to address what he saw as the world’s great challenges, from Sudan to Iran and the global economy to Afghanistan, along with China as equals. India followed these developments with concern. China ironically saved the day, because Beijing really didn’t want to be America’s second fiddle.
Obama also has some frank words about Pakistan. “Although the Pakistani government cooperated with us in a number of counterterrorism operations … it was an open secret that certain elements within the country’s armed forces, and especially its intelligence services, had ties to the Taliban and perhaps even Al Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets to ensure that the Afghan government remained weak and unable to align itself with India, Pakistan’s number one rival, ”he writes.
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