Bharatiya Pragna - Dr. Th Chowdary

4
Editorial
Barack Obama as President of the US
“...Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door”
A merica is viewed by the world’s people as a land of opportunity. Americans themselves
are proud to say that they are a nation of immigrants. A famous statesman even said that if there was
no America, it would have to be invented. The fierce yearning for freedom and liberty and great
opportunities that that country provides for the meritorious, hard-working and enterprising are what
have been making the US as a magnet for the distressed people, whom Emma Lazarus invites and
welcomes with open arms in the above poem that stands inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Obama’s
election gives truthful content to those words.
Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan Muslim, Barack Hussain Obama (Sr.) who emigrated
to the US and married a white American Christian. Obama was baptized to Christianity. He grew in
poverty but was determined to be a self-made, successful man against heavy odds like racial inequality!
He persevered to attain talents that have enabled him to be the first non-WASP (White
Anglo Saxon Protestant) and black i.e., Afro-American to become the President of the US. The
seemingly endless expensive American war in Iraq, and the unbridled markets have landed the US in
a stupendous economic crisis. The US power and its share of the world’s gross product are declining.
Its military power is being threatened by resurgent China and Russia and not inconsiderably, by
India also. It appears that in great disgust and a fond longing for a change, the American voters seem
to have punished the traditional hegemons and voted for Obama. They might have taken a great
gamble but it appears to be an expression of no confidence in the traditional leaders, for Obama was
least known to Americans just five years ago in contrast to glorious public figures like Hillary Clinton
and McCain.
As far as India is concerned, it would matter little whether McCain or Obama is the US
President. US as a nation has been seeking the friendship of India because we are becoming economically
and intellectually strong. America’s friendship with Pakistan is under severe strain because
Pakistan is degenerating into a failed state with terrorists running amock and its embrace of
China, a potential rival to the US.
Although Obama spoke about containing the outsourcing of work for US businesses and industries
to India, it maybe taken just as election rhetoric. For an America getting caught in an economic
crisis, there is a compulsion to cut costs and therefore to persist in outsourcing. The adverse effect of
Obama’s pre-election pronouncement may be for a short time; it is unsustainable for long. The Indo-
US Civil 123 Agreement was supported by the Democratic Party and by Obama in particular. Its
operation will not be jeopardized. In fact, may be with better relations and understanding developing,
some revisions could, as a major national party has in view, be in the offing.
November & December 2008 Bharatiya Pragna