THE OBAMA VISIT

The ruling classes and the corporate media are quite euphoric about the outcome of the recent visit of the US President Barack Obama to India. Obama said that Pakistan needs to dismantle the ‘terrorist apparatus’ on its soil and bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attacks to book. He expressed US support to India becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Obama talked of the influence of Gandhi over him and even said that he would not be standing here as the US President but for that influence. He praised India’s spiritual and scientific contribution, including the invention of the zero. To top it all, he sought and mostly succeeded, in bowling over the upper middle classes by declaring that India was not ‘emerging’ but has already ‘emerged’. What more could you ask for?

But what does all this mean to the people of India? To the 70% of the population, who toil day and night in the fields, in the factories and offices and on the streets of India, to produce all its food and all its wealth?

Of course, providing any benefit to these people was not on the agenda of the US President. The purpose of his visit was to draw India into a closer security and military relationship and to promote the trade interests of the USA. Before leaving for India, Obama clearly stated ‘The primary purpose is to take a bunch of US companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest growing markets in the world’ and ‘create jobs at home’. And that is what he has done. By the time he left India, $15 billion worth of deals have been signed, which are expected to create over 50,000 jobs in the US. While trying to curtail outsourcing of business processes from the US, which would adversely affect jobs in India, Obama sought to soothe bitterness by saying that the deals signed ‘will also allow Indian entrepreneurs to create jobs here’.

But what was disappointing was the attitude of the UPAII government, which was voted to power with great expectations by the common people. Without the slightest consideration that its priority concerns should be to ensure the employment, food, education and health of the vast masses of our country, the UPA II government entered into agreements that have put these very basic needs of our people into jeopardy.

The Green Revolution of the sixties saw increased productivity through the use of high yielding varieties of seeds, increased use of fertilisers etc. Now, when large sections of the population suffer from food insecurity, an ‘evergreen revolution’ is promised to promote food security by opening up our markets to US agricultural products. India will be flooded with highly subsidised US agricultural and diary products. This will be detrimental to the interests of our small farmers who are already reeling under the continuing agrarian crisis. This can only be a recipe for driving more farmers to suicides; not for ensuring food security. The UPA II government is more interested in passing the Seed bill which promotes the interests of the US multinational seed companies like Monsanto, than in protecting the seed rights of our farmers. Wal-Mart and Monsanto are part of the India US Agricultural Knowledge Initiative and are influencing policy decisions with respect to Indian agriculture; they are trying to penetrate Indian research institutions such as agricultural universities and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

To address the serious unemployment situation in the country, the US is turning protectionist while at the same time pressurising the Indian Government to open up retail trade, higher education, financial sectors etc to US based MNCs. The US India CEO Forum is pressurising the government to open up our financial and higher education sectors for American companies. The Insurance Amendment Bill has already been tabled in the parliament and the government is keen to ensure its passage.

Contrary to the government claim, allowing FDI in higher education would only provide opportunities for below average US institutions to open teaching shops in India and make hefty profits by offering commercial courses. This will only aggravate the commercialisation of higher education already being witnessed in the country. The Wal-Mart CEO has been publicly lobbying for opening up of India’s retail sector to FDI, which would threaten the livelihood of more than 4 crore people dependent on this sector in India.

The slavish attitude of the UPA II government, yearning to become a junior partner of the US is so evident that it has even failed to raise the issue of justice for the Bhopal gas victims. In the case of the oil spill by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico Obama forced the company to shell out billions of dollars as compensation and forced it to clean up its mess. But he spoke not a word about the Bhopal victims here. More atrocious was the government’s silence on the issue. The public outcry against the verdict in the case of the world’s worst industrial accident, the Bhopal gas accident, forced the government to state that they would revive the case for the extradition of Warren Anderson. Recently, the US deputy National Security Advisor, Michael Forman, wrote to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, that the ‘noise’ in India over Dow Chemicals would have a ‘chilling effect’ on the India-US investment relationship. Obviously, the UPA II government’s keenness to protect the interests of US investors overrode its responsibility to ensure just compensation or bringing to book those who caused the death of more than 20,000 people and maiming of tens of thousands in Bhopal.

As for the assurance about the permanent seat in the UN Security Council and the assertion on Pakistan’s need to dismantle terrorist apparatus, the less said the better. Once Obama left India, statements are being issued by US representatives that India has to wait for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. India’s case would be considered depending on the stand it takes in the UN Security Council. It has been asked to act responsibly; that means toeing the US line on human rights, democracy and on nuclear non-proliferation. India has to continue to vote for sanctions against Iran; it has to support Israeli aggression in Palestine; it should not talk of the slaughter of Iraqi civilians by the occupation forces and so on.

As for action against terror bases in Pakistan, the US has given billions of dollars of aid to Pakistan in return for its military and logistical help in anti Taliban operations in Afghanistan. US needs Pakistan in its strategy in Afghanistan and cannot abandon it to support us in the fight against terrorism.

The Indo US agreements entered into during the Obama visit were meant to benefit the US multinational corporations and the Indian ruling classes. Instead of emphasising that India’s priority is for lifting the vast mass of people out of poverty, hunger and disease and in that context framing India’s relations with the United States, the Congress-led government has catered to the US business and strategic interests. The one sided and unequal relations that benefit the US multinational corporations at the cost of the interests of the common people of our country is not acceptable.

Source: www.citucentre.org/