The American presidential elections attract a great deal of media attention in India compared to any other election in the world. This can be attributed to a couple of reasons. American democracy is second only to India, and the US has a large Indian American population (it has touched a whopping 2 million mark as per the 2000 census). This year’s presidential election is seeing more effort to woo the Indian American community, and several issues related to India have been discussed by both the presidential candidates (unlike in past Presidential elections). This can also be attributed in part to the growing stature of India in the world stage, and India’s increasingly close bilateral relations with US, particularly after the historic Indo-US nuclear deal.
The Indian American voter also has become very conscious of the situation back home in India. There are a few demands as a voter from this segment too. Indian American voter want to see an immigration reform, a geostrategic partnership between the two countries and a viable plan by the United States to help India tackle its public health issues including AIDS.
Let us take a look at the views of the 2 Presidential nominees towards India.
Mc Cain regards India as a powerful democratic nation. He considers it a big responsibility to be a good and reliable ally of fellow democracies. He is of the view that the US has to strengthen global alliances to make a new global compact. In other words he would like to see this league of large democracies to harness the vast influence of the democratic nations of the world (more than 100 of them), and to advance the common values as well as to defend their common interests. He favors inclusion of India in the powerful G-8 at the cost of the exclusion of Russia.
What will this mean for India? The defining feature of the G8 is that it's the club of the rich and powerful. Countries like India and China between them are home to more than a third of humankind. Many of the issues that the G8 is now highlighting, including the alleviation of poverty and the Carbon Dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change cannot be addressed on the global scenario without the involvement of these two giant nations. The inclusion into the league of G-8 may in the future pave the way for India’s seat in the UN
Security Council. Also McCain is well informed about India’s space programme. He puts India along with countries like Japan, China, Russia and Europe as active players in space exploration.
Obama looks at building a close and strategic alliance with India. India and the United States have both experienced major terrorist attacks, mainly by groups that have similar ideologies and operations like the Al-Qaeda. He has been very critical of the Bush administration’s approach on the war on terrorism. He has continuously believed that Iraq is not - and never was - the main front of the war on terror. He is of the view that there has to be greater focus on Afghanistan and the tribal region of Pakistan, precisely those regions of the world that India faces a great threat. Hence strategic
cooperation with India on national security would be very beneficial. Bruce Reddel, advising Obama on South Asia Policy went to the extent of hinting at a new policy on this region keeping in mind Pakistan’s obsession with India and Kashmir when the new administration comes to office early next year. But whether New Delhi like to have any third party intervention on this issue given the 1971 agreement (which states explicitly that the Kashmir problem should be resolved bilaterally) remains to be seen. Obama’s running mate Biden in an exclusive interview with rediff.com has spoken of how the US and India in the decades to follow would be “the two closest nations in the world”.
On the flip side Obama pledged to halt tax sops to companies that ship jobs overseas. If obama sticks to this promise it will mean trouble ahead for India’s IT industry. India’s software and services exports stood at about $40 billion during the financial year 2008, a growth of 29%, with US as its largest market. However it is commonly believed that US companies need to outsource to be competitive. This implies that outsourcing is likely to continue for some to come.
Obama’s views India’s first space mission “Chandrayaan” as a challenge for the US (given that it happened almost soon after the historic China’s first space walk). He as president of US would want to see to it that the US remains the undisputed leader in space and science technology.
Conclusion, as India, over the years, had emerged as a strong and powerful nation, one sees a bright future for Indo-US bilateral relation in the years to come irrespective of who resides in the White House.
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