Former US President Barack Obama says he had developed a “warm and productive” relationship with Manmohan Singh.
In the first of his two-part memoirs, A promised land Former US President Barack Obama speaks extensively about his interest in India, the life of Mahatma Gandhi and his relationship with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whom he calls a man of “uncommon wisdom and decency.”
Obama says he had developed a “warm and productive” relationship with Singh, and describes their interactions in New Delhi on Obama’s first visit there in November 2010.
“A gentle, soft-spoken economist in his seventies, with a white beard and a turban that were the hallmarks of his Sikh faith but gave him the air of a holy man in the eyes of the West, he had been Minister of Finance of India in the 1990s, successfully lifting millions out of poverty. During his tenure as Prime Minister, I would consider Singh to be wise, thoughtful and scrupulously honest, ”he writes.
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“While the [Mr. Singh] He might be cautious in foreign policy, unwilling to get too far ahead of an Indian bureaucracy that was historically suspicious of America’s intentions, our time together confirmed my initial impression of him as a man of rare wisdom and decency; and during my visit to the capital city of New Delhi, we reached agreements to strengthen US cooperation in counterterrorism, global health, nuclear security and trade, ”says Obama.
The former president of the United States writes that his first trip to India was in 2010 but that the place had always “had a special place in me. [his] imagination.”
He says this is possibly due to its “large size” with one sixth of humanity and 2,000 distinct ethnic groups and more than 700 languages. Or, he speculates, it could be because he had heard the Mahabharata and the Ramayana during his childhood in Indonesia, or his interest in Eastern religions or because a group of Indian and Pakistani friends at university taught him to cook ‘dal’ and ‘kheema. ‘and introduced him to Bollywood movies.
Obama writes extensively on Gandhiji’s life and legacy, including the inspiration America’s civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. drew from Gandhiji’s philosophy. Describes a visit by former first lady Michelle Obama to Mani Bhavan, where Gandhiji used to stay when he was in Mumbai. [then Bombay].
While Obama says that in many respects India counts as a success story, it is not all praise for the country. He speaks of the striking inequality between rich and poor and says that “violence, both public and private”, remained “a very pervasive part of Indian life”.
“What I couldn’t say was if [Manmohan] Singh’s rise to power represented the future of India’s democracy or simply an aberration, “says Obama.
Singh’s “restraint” against Pakistan after the November 2011 attacks in Mumbai had cost him politically, Obama writes.
“The [Mr. Singh] feared that growing anti-Muslim sentiment had strengthened the influence of India’s main opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), “writes Obama, and continues to quote Singh:” ‘In times of uncertainty, Mr. President “said the Prime Minister,” the call for religious and ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating. And it’s not that difficult for politicians to exploit that, in India or anywhere else. ‘
Obama describes the rise of “anti-liberalism” in wealthy nations.
“… If I were seeing it even in the United States with the Tea Party, how could India be immune?”
The former president’s descriptions of people throughout the book often include a physical description; this applies to both men and women (for example, about former French President Nicolas Sarkozy: “he looked like a figure from a Toulouse-Lautrec painting”). . Obama describes his meetings with Congressional leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi during his trip to India.
“Both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi sat at the table that night. She was a striking woman in her sixties, dressed in a traditional sari, with piercing dark eyes and a calm, regal presence, “she writes.
Ms. Gandhi listened more than she spoke, she says, attributing her power to “a cunning and energetic intelligence.”
However, Gandhi does not do so well in Obama’s writing.
“As for Rahul, he seemed smart and serious, his good looks resembling his mother’s. He offered his thoughts on the future of progressive politics, stopping occasionally to poll me on the details of my 2008 campaign, “Obama says. “But there was a nervous, formless quality to him, as if he were a student who had done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher, but deep down lacked the aptitude or passion to master the subject.”
The book takes us to 2011, towards the end of Obama’s first term. Presumably, it is for this reason that the author does not speak of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who became Prime Minister in 2014 and welcomed Mr. Obama in New Delhi at the Republic Day celebrations. A second volume of Obama’s memoirs is expected, although a publication date has not been announced.
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