Mukul Kesavan on Barack Obama in The Telegraph, Calcutta:
“The more I read about him, the more he seemed like a mythical creature constituted out of a politically correct wish-list. Here was a Christian whose father had been a lapsed Kenyan Muslim, whose middle name was Hussein, who had had a white American mother, an Indonesian step-father and who had grown up in places as distant from the American mainland as Hawaii and Indonesia, and people were talking him up… only the fifth African-American member of the US Senate… as a plausible candidate for the presidency of the United States of America!
“Sitting on my sofa in Delhi, I had no real insight into how Americans of different colours and sexes saw Obama. All I knew was that I’d be happy to see a tale like this unfold in India. It’s unlikely to happen (not least because India is a parliamentary democracy and therefore doesn’t stage nationwide elections for a single post), but think how rousing it would be to see an Indian equivalent of Obama, someone as far from the ‘mainstream’, as mixed in his (or her) origins, with no inherited political patronage and no readymade party machine at his disposal, make a real, credible run for political office.”
Read the full article: A man called Obama
Also read: Shashi Tharoor: What is globalisation?
The election is for the President of USA, not for the world. If Americans vote for a white male (based on his policies), there’s nothing to feel bad about it. In a country where blacks have been oppressed for generations, it is certainly encouraging to see a black becoming a president (and connections to Indonesia or Kenya are immaterial)
Black or White, it’s hard to see America changing colours. Condolezza Rice, a black woman, played a key role in the war mongering Bush government. What if she had contested on a Republican ticket? Will that be considered a good sign?
Somehow, the boom in the 90s when Democrat Clinton was the president and recession, september 11 attacks, war on Afghanistan and Iraq when Republican Bush is the president had created a certain impression in India – Good Democrats and Bad Republicans and above all a really bad Bush (among the good Americans).
Now in 2008, US economy is heading for a recession. A democrat victory is very much possible and likely. A military intervention in Iran is also possible and likely. Whether it is Hillary Clinton or Obama, let’s wait and see if they handle things in a different way.
After Super-Tuesday it’s all out in the open. Women are 51-46 for Clinton ; Hispanic vote is 65-16 Clinton; African-American vote is 80-15 to Obama ; young voters (<30) are 60+ for Obama ; Seniors (65+) are going for Clinton ; Baby boomers are divided — Iraq, Washington tired voters are favoring Obama while those fearing economy and underlining experience go with Clinton .
It’s experience vs. a call for change. Obama is unproven, but a whiff of fresh air. Clinton(husband in tow) is seasoned to the point of fault, has big bad machinery and is resilient ; many hate her, but she is the best they’ve got. It’s long from over. But if the overtures from the last debate are any indication, a Clinton-Obama ticket maybe in the offing. It’s a dream combo and the novelty in itself will get them thru. Add to that the Republican front runner, McCain is winning only Blue(Democratic) states (where come Nov, Republicans will not have a chance) while losing the Red southern belt. McCain will need Huckabee to extricate him in the bible belt. It is turning out to be interesting..
Indian Obama ? Wow, that would be good, but let’s slap ourselves out of the stupor :-) ..
Bharat,
A military intervention in Iran is also possible and likely. — Not likely in my opinion. After the NIA report that Iran does not have the nuclear weapons and the folly of dubya with Iraq-WMD, trillions of dollars and a region in flux, Americans cannot afford to be the policeman of middle-east. By proxy maybe, but not in a direct conflict.
Like you noted, with the economy knocking the doors of recession, it will be hard to explain to the populace..
There will be microphone war and posturing, but US will keep out unless the mad Ahmadinejad does something stupid — totally capable of it.
Political culture in India is still a top-down thing with the odd grassroots leader being able to storm the bastions and make a name for himself… before handing the party over to his family, and turning it into Nepotism Central.
Still, despite the disparities, diversity and divisions in India, I think we have done credibly well enough to have a Woman President, a Roman Catholic Italian divorcee as leader of Ruling Party, an Sikh economist as PM, a Muslim academic as Vice Prez and of course, a Convent educated (militant?) Hindu as leader of Opposition all at the same time.
Who’s the Roman Catholic Italian divorcee? ;-)
since the leader of the opposition has some qualification against the name courtesy ALOK,this would be in order ,
Woman President ? with major corruption charges and a case for abettment of suicide against her spouse.
Roman Catholic Italian ? again major corruption charges against family, allowed her fellow italian friend to escape from India.
an Sikh economist as PM ? a person who has not even WON a municipal election on his own.Is on crutches and could be termed as a Benami.
Muslim academic as Vice Prez ? in the chair for purely religious reasons.
I dont think either of them will make it to the White House….
The electorate might just prefer the rock solid conventional McCain….having a Woman or a Black as prez will be too much for them for being ‘Progressive’ !!!!
it happens only in India…
a woman as prez,
a muslim as Vice Prez,
a sikh as PM,
a Commie as Speaker,
a dalit as CJI,
and a Italian born Catholic as the Unofficial PM cum Chairperson of the ruling coalition…!!!
@Bharat
my mistake… it was supposed to be widow (don’t know why divorcee popped into my head for some reason… )… should start reading my posts more carefully before I hit the “submit comment” button….
@Prasad
the “militant?” qualified the Hindu since Advani seems to have abandoned most hardline Hindutva positions in favour of a more moderate tone + occasional reference to Ayodhya and Rama
Mukul Kesavan should stick to writing about cricket – this kind of glib
talk has gotten very irritating. In his book, “Ugliness of the Indian male,
he explains how he took great pains to get his admitted to a school that had Muslim names in the class. Elsewhere he goes to great lengths in the same book to defend Muslim polygamy. He delightfully recounts how he won the argument with one those reactionary North Indian types. If a Muslim marries four women then he is reducing the number of eligible women available to other men. So polygamy cannot increase the Muslim population and so on.
His relative (brother in law) Ram Guha is not too eager to be left behind.
In his book “India after Gandhi” he claims that post-independence the things that have kept India united are cricket, hindi movies and some other glib-talk item.
Barak Obama looks like a “Manchurian Candidate’ to me. Appears from nowhere and suddenly is in the limelight fighting for the presidency.
I am simply amazed by the media coverage that the American primaries/caucuses is suddenly getting in India. And there is still more than 10 months to go for the actual voting !!
Me thinks this is a somehow an intentional manipulative showcasing by the American govt of their best… i.e their grassroots democracy, after all the negative publicity they had over Iraq, that created a false impression that all Americans are monsters.
Obama is media’s creation and the momentum is going on! Honestly, I haven’t seen lot of ‘material’ from him! ‘Hope’ and ‘bringing people together’ may not be good enough.
On the other hand, comparing Obama’s case to India is not fair. We already had minorities as our presidents and Prime Ministers. We also had woman as our Prime Minister. Current president is a lady.
However, primaries allow anyone from any walk of life run for office here. It’s not that easy in India since you need to get the ‘ticket’ from the political parties to run for office!
OSAMA ; OBAMA ; so near yet so far .Wondering if he will take on OSAMA in case he is lucky at the polls.
A very interesting article in the Telegraph on Obama and how “such a thing could happen in India.”
Well, in India, the Obama effect has been happening since the independence, and on a regular basis.
America has taken over 230 years to even “think of electing” someone from the minority, or a woman to head its nation. No non-Christian, non-white, female has even been considered for that most power of posts till this election.
In India, we have had minorities in positions of power several times since 60 years of independence. Women, dalits, muslims, sikhs, christians have all come to the chair of CMs, PMs and even President in a nation that has majority Hindu population. No other democratic nation on earth has such pluralism at work, whereby the majority regularly votes in minorities into positions of power. And yet, no other democratic nation has to face the ire of media and “social workers” on “human rights record”, as India !!
Can you think of any other nation where Mayawati, Laluprasad et all could rub shoulders with Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil ? Only in India can the illiterate, dacoit, IIT graduates, aristocrats, freedom fighters, all rub shoulders as CMs and PMs.
Sadly, when intelligent journs and writers think we need to have an “Obama effect” in India, we have wiped out the gains of our social upliftment of last 60 years.