Shared Legacy: George Bush and Manmohan Singh
“Former President George W Bush is a great friend of our country. We, in India, recognize the important role he played in the fruition of the civil nuclear cooperation initiative”. These were the statements made by our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a Luncheon yesterday organized for George Bush who is visiting India. President George Bush is one American the world loved to hate. He is by far the most disliked American president in my life time. Although he enjoyed strong domestic support his policies and politics beginning with the aftermath of 09/11 did not go well with the rest of the world. I always wondered why there was a disconnect between America and the rest of the world as far as George Bush was concerned. George Bush was born to a very wealthy family and a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School. But as a politician he was perhaps best able to connect with an average American more than any other politician that I am aware of.
The American president makes more speeches in a day than any other leader in the world. It is the nature of the job. These speeches and question and answer sessions are then published as front page news all over the world or carried live on cable TV. Making speeches and answering questions are not George Bush’s strengths. He looks uncomfortable and sometimes looks lost or disinterested. Unfortunately for Bush the American president who preceded him (Bill Clinton) was one of the best speakers ever as is the president who succeeded him (Barak Obama). In general I do not like politicians who give speeches. I do not need a speech to motivate me. Maybe others do. When George Bush was president the public knew very little about the first family and what they were doing on a daily basis. I like that in my president. This is in stark contrast to the Clinton presidency (when his wife Hillary Clinton was heading major policy objectives like health care) and now the Obama presidency (there is very little the public does not know about the president’s family).
The foreign policy followed by Bush is very debatable. Many people in the world, particularly the Western Europeans and many in the Muslim world do not like his policy. America is still a young and growing empire that is willing to compete and stay aggressive even it means loosing face or getting bloody. Western Europeans are looking forward to their imminent retirement (post empire stage) and do not want anyone or anything to upset their applecart. The Muslim anger towards Bush is understandable. The events of 09/11 resulted in America attacking two predominately Muslim nations (Iraq and Afghanistan). There was a lot of talk in those days that America was not ready for such wars anymore (Saddam Hussain said that the Iraq war would be the mother of all battles and would be worst than Vietnam). What America showed next was the power of its armed forces and the resolve of its people.
Prime Minster Manmohan Singh is very similar to President Bush. Manmohan Singh looks very uncomfortable in public. He rarely speaks in public (something the American president cannot afford to do). Initially he was looked as a dummy with the real power residing with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. But with each passing day he has managed to create a legacy for himself. Manmohan Singh is the first Prime Minister to get elected to a second term in India in a very long time. He has provided a calming and steady leadership in an otherwise chaotic neighborhood. He has also followed the policies of recent Indian governments (Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee) in turning India away from failed pro-Soviet foreign policy to a more balanced India centric foreign policy.
Manmohan Singh’s best move was to dump the communist as the coalition partner because of their objections to the Indo-US Nuclear Treaty and make sure that the agreement was signed and approved by the Indian parliament. It is this agreement that brings Manmohan Singh and George Bush together. This treaty is without doubt the highlight of their careers as leaders of their nation.
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Category: News & Government