Win Win and the Winner is…
November 9, 2010 by Team SAI
Filed under foreign policy, geopolitics
Singh is King
There has been much song and dance about the visit of Obama and Michelle to India. Both endeared the youth and the nation alike in India and back home in US dancing their way through the storm of the showdown in the mid term elections. The US got to sign $10 Billion worth of deals with the MMCRA deal also in the pipeline, restored 50,000 US jobs and made the visit count for many reasons apart from the economic bargains at Mumbai. There is an air of celebration amongst the democrats and a hope of better relations with India to counter China. And then there are some more…all of which appeared to have been credited to Obama and Michelle and the foreign office of America.
However, the quite and unassuming media shy MMS and Gursharan Kaur danced their way to the Indian Hearts in their own rights. They got the better of the relationship, got better deals and a deliverance on Mumbai carnage and Kashmir from Obama in addition to US endorsement of UNSC seat for India. Not that these statements will get India the seat or force Pakistan to deliver on terror, but they are a major shift in US policy.
MMS, as seen on the TV sets with Obama, was a much confident and composed head of a state whose time had come. In his body language, the waist hugs and warmth, he overshadowed Obama and endeared himself to the nation. He and his team have achieved what decades of Indo US diplomacy could not.
Western analysts have gone on to argue that this Asian trip and the give in by Obama were to counter Chinese influence in the region. True that may be but the quid pro quo which MMS got for India was beyond the transactional relationships amongst nations. SAI in an article in April this year titled Indo US relations had argued a similar dispensation – we are glad for India that Indian diplomacy and MMS have managed to achieve all the deliverables.
There would be flip sides to the outcome of the visit and the lofty announcements once dust settles on the event, but for now in this win win outcome of the visit, it would be prudent to declare the shrewd MMS, who got the quid pro quo right, as the winner – without much song and dance!
Post Script
I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.
~ Mia Hamm
Related articles
- My trip will strengthen India-US ties: Obama (ibnlive.in.com)
- Obama lands in Delhi, PM receives him at airport (ibnlive.in.com)
- Obama’s visit to India (ki-media.blogspot.com)
- Michelle Obama dances in Mumbai (bbc.co.uk)
- Obama pushes India to talk to Pakistan (reuters.com)
- Obama sees ‘win-win’ relationship with India (ibnlive.in.com)
- Start of a new US-India power base in Asia (themoderatevoice.com)
India and the Indian media needs to learn that its time for india to stop looking back at america everytime pakistan sneezes .America is no longer the man it used to be and it can no longer help us…we need to overcome our lack of self respect and live our own life . Barring that the visit went great .
America comes to India to create 50000 jobs for those poor Americans ! America wants China to devalue its currency since it adversely effects American economy ! Let that new world reality sink in …Unca Sam has become a Grampa who needs to be helped along .
Jolly
Not just yet.. There are alliances still forming with or against US. It should last few more decades before uncle Sam tires out. In the meanwhile we need some more MMS magic
With more self respect we could shape the world around us better than we are now …wait till you see the strategic fallout of american departure from afghanistan .
In this interdependent world where China runs surrogate states in our neighbourhood we need to put pragmatic realism above self righteousness and form suitable alliances.
Barack Obama’s India Trip: The View Through A Soft Power Lens – Neal Rosendorf – Newswire – CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: “[T]he U.S. President still garners an enormous amount of international good will, including in India. Obama deftly capitalized on this in a number of ways, including a well-received address to the Indian Parliament . … From India’s perspective, Barack Obama’s visit was a virtually unalloyed public diplomacy victory, one the country very much needed in the aftermath of the recent PD near-catastrophe that was the Commonwealth Games. … In sum, the United States and India have ended up with a soft power ‘win-win,’ with each state leveraging the presidential visit to make a largely favorable impression on the other.”