“Realistically speaking, we (India) are a second or perhaps third tier force in the eyes of the US”

Stephen Cohen a known Indophile who created the now debunked “Cold Start Strategy” has clearly said that the India and the US are strategically moving apart. This assessment comes in the wake of the reality that America’s new banker is not New York—it is Beijing. Prime Minister Manamohan Singh sheepishly mentioned this anomaly during his various conversations in Washington and elsewhere. While the chest thumping on democracy fell on deaf ears, what chagrined the prime minister and Bharati media was the fact that the US has ignored Delhi’s whining on Mumbai. Contrary to the lobbying efforts of Delhi, the US Congress tripled aid to Pakistan, and then some—it is also working on ROZ and a FTA with Pakistan. Unbeknownst to Delhi, the US Army has helped the generals in Islamabad with weapons that are under the radar or press and or media scrutiny.

While “more Catholic than the Pope” (more Brahman than the monks in Benaras) Indophiles in the ranks of obsequies dawn.com (Anwar Iqbal—though he is not the only one) are trumpeting the Manmohan trip to Washington as the anointment of Bharat as a superpower---back in the Vatican (or Benaras in this theme) the Bharati media is very aware of the realities. This is not the Clinton or Bush presidency. It is also a different place on the timeline of history. Under the old discarded doctrine India was to be built as a counterweight to China. There is a frenzy in the Neocon ranks for this---the reality in today's world does not allow playing India against China. President Obama’s constrained reality is the financial collapse and the anemic US economy that is not creating jobs, or creating wealth for Americans. While China holds $1 trillion or more of US T-bills, is three times the economy of Bharat, and has an export surplus with the US, and Europe that can only be a wish for the tine $42 billion IT industry out of Banglore that affects only 6 million people.

Most Washington analysts today realize that Bharat is an important country, but it is getting too big for its britches. With a creaky economy (last decade not withstanding), an atrocious infrastructure, mind numbing penury, horrid caste infestation, a superiority complex (which is psychological terms is actually an inferiority complex), and the propensity to dominate all her neighbors, Bharat has reduced itself to a regional state where all countries surrounding it hate her. While China has developed goodwill, friendship and admiration neighbors near and far, Delhi’s policies only conjures up hate and resistance to hegemony. Bharat has unending hatred towards Delhi in Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Kashmir, Lanka, Maldives and even Bangladesh (which it created). Its biggest successes have become its biggest cancers. Kashmir and Bangaldesh thumb their noses at Delhi. Pakistan is a nuclear powered state and has successfully maneuvered itself into the good graces of both the USA and China—with the neutral Russian making overtures—because of China. As a major Non-Nato Ally it has superb relations with Europe and is working on Free Trade Agreements with all three. today Unless and until Delhi learns the norms on how to behave in an international arena, it will never have a voice in world affairs.

In this prodigiously written article, the Christian Science Monitor presents of sample of Bharati thinking.

President Barack Obama meets with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G-20 summit at the ExCel Centre in London in this April 2 file photo.

Charles Dharapak/AP/File

 

New Delhi - As India's prime minister Manmohan Singh arrives to a red carpet welcome in Washington Monday – the first state guest of President Barack Obama – commentators in India seemed more preoccupied with the United States' growing friendship with China.

Ties between India and the US are stronger than they have been in decades. Bilateral trade has surged, doubling since 2004 to more than $43 billion a year. Last year the two countries signed a landmark civil nuclear deal, agreed upon by Mr. Singh and former US President George Bush in 2005, that brought India out of nuclear isolation and symbolized a sea change in the countries' political relationship. Indeed, the US sees a vital role for India in the battle against terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan and in a host of other issues from world trade to climate change.

But while talks between Mr. Singh and Mr. Obama scheduled for Tuesday are likely to focus on such matters as Afghanistan, climate change, and cooperation on nuclear energy, pundits in India are more interested in the question of where the US's new friendship with China, as well as its relationship with Pakistan, leaves India.

"We may aspire to a seat at the high table of world power but China is already sitting at the head of the table along with the United States," wrote journalist Gautam Adhikari in the Times of India Monday. "It has enough IOUs in its pocket to stop anyone from pushing it around. We also are a billion-strong nation, a democracy to boot and growing economically at a still impressive rate given the global conditions. But, realistically speaking, we are a second or perhaps third tier force in the eyes of the United States."

A recent joint statement from Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, which included a line of support for better Indo-Pakistan relations, was regarded in New Delhi as an expression of unwanted interference in a sensitive matter. For some, it raises the worrying specter of Chinese involvement in South Asian diplomacy – and at a time when India's long running border row with China is especially tense. (Read about how each side recently provoked the other and escalated tensions on the border.)

"It seemed to suggest that India had simply fallen between two stools – Pakistan and China were urgent priorities for different reasons," said an editorial in the Indian Express newspaper Monday.

India is also likely to urge the US to take a tougher line on Pakistan, which it blames for harboring terrorists.

India fears losing US favor even as Obama fetes Manmohan Singh

President Obama is hosting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week with his first state visit. But India worries the US cares more about wooing rivals China and Pakistan.

By Mian Ridge | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the November 23, 2009 edition. Read about how China and India's rivalry is playing out on the high seas.

What Mr. Anwar Iqbal don’t seem to realize is the simple fact that this is not the first time that Bharat has tried to be the global superpower. In the 50s Nehru tried to lead the entire workd as a third alternative to the USSR and the USA. It formed its very own Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Tito, Nehru and Mao were the anointed leaders of the 3rd world. However because of the egomaniacal personality of Mr. Nehru, that initiative didn’t go anywhere. Mao and Nehru had a falling out resulting in the 1962 war between Bharat and China. Tito remained a world player ‘till his demise which led to the total disintegration of his country Yugoslavia. Only the progeny of Mao, steadfast to their country have made to the top

In this new Chinese Century, Beijing has clearly told Washington that Kashmir has to be solved in order to resolve Afghanistan. The recent mention of “India-Pakistani” relations during the final statement after the Obama-Tao summit of course translated into “Kashmir”. The not to oblique reference to a territory that Delhi considers its own created a furor in the Bharati press as well as the political circles in the Lok and Rajha Sabha. The pundits in Delhi. Delhi new exactly what it meant. Allowing China to be the leader in South Asia to work as a referee between India and Pakistan relegates India to parity with its much smaller but nuclear armed neighbor