10-30-2009, 05:39 AM
<b>Bush dinner tastes sour for Obama- PMO decision to entertain former President causes hurt in Washington</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Washington, Oct. 24: Preparations for Manmohan Singhâs visit to Washington on November 24 have begun on a negative signal to the Obama administration with a decision by the<b> Prime Ministerâs Office (PMO) to host former President George W. Bush for dinner at Singhâs residence at the end of this month.</b>
<b>Bush is visiting New Delhi on October 30 and 31 at the invitation of an Indian newspaper and will speak at a conference organised in New Delhi on October 31 on âAmerica Re-engaging with the World: Challenges, Opportunities and Risksâ.</b>
Arguably stung by the PMOâs insensitivity in ostentatiously receiving the bete noir of the Democratic establishment here just over three weeks before Singhâs arrival at the White House, the Obama administration announced yesterday that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will make her first trip to Islamabad.
Clinton, a long-time friend of India, has tried her best to prevent a return to hyphenated Indo-Pakistan relations under the Obama administration and had refused to include Pakistan in the 229,528km that she has flown in her nine months in office.
Despite the strategic importance of Pakistan in the Afghan conundrum that is confronting President Barack Obama, Clinton has so far left it to her minions to deal with the broad leadership in Islamabad.
But that will change with her first trip, which was significantly announced at a briefing by Richard Holbrooke, Obamaâs special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose prickly equations with New Delhi are well publicised here.
<b>On the record, of course, no one in the Obama administration will say anything negative about the Bush trip to India because civility in political discourse is valued in the US. Nor will they suggest a Bush-India link in Clintonâs sudden decision to travel to Islamabad âsoonâ.
A source close to Clinton, however, said she recalled being kept hanging in her Senate office in 2001 while Sonia Gandhi repeatedly changed plans to meet her. The Indian embassy here had advised the Congress president that the Bush administration would not look favourably on a meeting with the former First Lady-turned-Democratic Senator from New York.</b>
<b>Instructions have gone out from the state department to the US embassy in New Delhi to extend all the courtesies that are due to a former American head of state and the ambassador in New Delhi, Timothy Roemer, will be correct, but not effusive in dealing with Bush.
But in private conversations, officials of the Obama administration, especially Democratic political appointees, make no secret of their sense of hurt over New Delhiâs decision.
This sense of hurt is shared by liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill, where enthusiasm about the Prime Ministerâs visit was palpable until it became widely known here that the man whom many of them consider to be a war criminal is being needlessly feted in New Delhi at this time.
âWe are rolling out the red carpet for your Prime Minister,â pointed out one Obama administration official. âSinghâs is the first state visit to be organised by the Obama administration. And what do you do? Invite the man who triggered the end of my countryâs superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide.â
Said a Congressional aide: âIn New Delhi people have been complaining for nine months, quite mistakenly, that Obama has downgraded the relationship with India. You have complaints about Obamaâs nuclear policy, his climate policy and his trade policy.</b>
âSo the President decides to organise a grand show of bonhomie with your Prime Minister in the White House. Instead of making the most of this opportunity by both sides, your response is to slap us in the face by inviting the one man who is responsible for most of the problems on Obamaâs shoulders.â<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Bush is visiting New Delhi on October 30 and 31 at the invitation of an Indian newspaper and will speak at a conference organised in New Delhi on October 31 on âAmerica Re-engaging with the World: Challenges, Opportunities and Risksâ.</b>
Arguably stung by the PMOâs insensitivity in ostentatiously receiving the bete noir of the Democratic establishment here just over three weeks before Singhâs arrival at the White House, the Obama administration announced yesterday that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will make her first trip to Islamabad.
Clinton, a long-time friend of India, has tried her best to prevent a return to hyphenated Indo-Pakistan relations under the Obama administration and had refused to include Pakistan in the 229,528km that she has flown in her nine months in office.
Despite the strategic importance of Pakistan in the Afghan conundrum that is confronting President Barack Obama, Clinton has so far left it to her minions to deal with the broad leadership in Islamabad.
But that will change with her first trip, which was significantly announced at a briefing by Richard Holbrooke, Obamaâs special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose prickly equations with New Delhi are well publicised here.
<b>On the record, of course, no one in the Obama administration will say anything negative about the Bush trip to India because civility in political discourse is valued in the US. Nor will they suggest a Bush-India link in Clintonâs sudden decision to travel to Islamabad âsoonâ.
A source close to Clinton, however, said she recalled being kept hanging in her Senate office in 2001 while Sonia Gandhi repeatedly changed plans to meet her. The Indian embassy here had advised the Congress president that the Bush administration would not look favourably on a meeting with the former First Lady-turned-Democratic Senator from New York.</b>
<b>Instructions have gone out from the state department to the US embassy in New Delhi to extend all the courtesies that are due to a former American head of state and the ambassador in New Delhi, Timothy Roemer, will be correct, but not effusive in dealing with Bush.
But in private conversations, officials of the Obama administration, especially Democratic political appointees, make no secret of their sense of hurt over New Delhiâs decision.
This sense of hurt is shared by liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill, where enthusiasm about the Prime Ministerâs visit was palpable until it became widely known here that the man whom many of them consider to be a war criminal is being needlessly feted in New Delhi at this time.
âWe are rolling out the red carpet for your Prime Minister,â pointed out one Obama administration official. âSinghâs is the first state visit to be organised by the Obama administration. And what do you do? Invite the man who triggered the end of my countryâs superpower status and brought shame to America worldwide.â
Said a Congressional aide: âIn New Delhi people have been complaining for nine months, quite mistakenly, that Obama has downgraded the relationship with India. You have complaints about Obamaâs nuclear policy, his climate policy and his trade policy.</b>
âSo the President decides to organise a grand show of bonhomie with your Prime Minister in the White House. Instead of making the most of this opportunity by both sides, your response is to slap us in the face by inviting the one man who is responsible for most of the problems on Obamaâs shoulders.â<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->