PRESIDENT Bush has begun his trip to South Asia. His three-day trip, two in India and a day in Pakistan has prompted speculation, mostly on his trip to India. There is no particular mention about his stay in Pakistan. A section of media here is agog with excitement. Newsweek and Wall Street Journal ran special reports predicting a booming future for India. The New York Times (NYT) is not so enthusiastic about the visit and warned President Bush in an editorial last Tuesday not to rush with the nuclear deal. A nuclear deal will send wrong signal to Iran and North Korea, the paper said. The Bush administration and the media here want India to counter the growing economic and military strength of China. Newsweek in particular is confidant about India making giant strides. The Magazine in a projection said India will overtake both Italy and Britain by 2022. But it hastened to add that 'China's rise is already here and palpable; it has grown at almost 10 per cent since 1980. India is still more a tale of the future, but a future that is coming into sharp focus. One of the important elements of Bush's visit to India is to reach out to Muslims and pacify the hurt feelings of the Muslim nations around the globe. The sweeping generalisation of the Muslims as terrorists by the America and now Europe has soured west's relations with the Muslims. This is the reason why President Bush is visiting Hyderabad, a place with rich Islamic heritage and a sizeable Muslim population, rather than Bangalore, the hub of IT world to see the magic advancement India has achieved in information technology. The trip is built around a nuclear deal that should not have been initiated and described as a bad deal by NYT. President Bush's itinerary in India does not include an address to the joint session of the parliament. This has been avoided because the honoured guest could have faced noisy protests by the members of the Parliament. The future course of relations will hinge on the US -- how it wants to cast India, as an adversary or an ally. India will be neither, NYT quoted a senior Indian official as saying. Prime Minister of India Manmohon Singh made a queer statement saying India would not compromise its sovereignty adding, "Ours is a sacred trust to protect future generations from a nuclear threat and we will uphold this goal". The United States wants India to clearly demarcate between its civilian and military nuclear goals. Nuclear advancement for civilian purposes must be open to International inspections, the USA demands. The US-India nuclear deal will face stiff opposition in the Congress as it was the case with leasing out of six American ports to a Dubai company. We can't warn Iran and assist India for the same crime, a Senator said. India has never pretended to obey the international rules. Many Indians do not share the optimism frequently expressed by the media here about India soon becoming a giant economic and military power. S Mehta writing in NYT way back in July last year said India is no wonderland. It might have the world's biggest middle class but it also has the world's largest underclass. A quarter of its billion people live below the poverty line, fifty per cent are illiterate and child malnutrition rate is worst than sub-Saharan Africa. There is a huge different between poverty stricken Bihar and IT booming city of Bangalore. The government estimates that India has 5.1 million people infected with HIV second only to South Africa. India's ports, roads, airports and energy generation are in dilapidated conditions not able to stand the weight of an economy that is being projected by the Western media. It is no wonder that India's finance minister P. Chidambaram a suave and sophisticated man said India is open to business and cited ports, roads, energy and airports that would welcome foreign investment.
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