News Analysis: Bush's zippy India visit comes with Texas ties

New York Times via International Herald Tribune ^ | February 26, 2006 | Elisabeth Bumiller

[indcons]

President George W. Bush is planning a two-day wind sprint across India this week, when he will meet with political leaders, chat up high-technology millionaires and give a speech at a 16th-century fort.

But to the consternation of many Indians, he will not see the country's most famous monument, the Taj Mahal, a decision Bush blamed last week on an omnipotent scheduler.

"Look, if I were the scheduler, perhaps I'd be doing things differently," Bush said when he was asked in an interview with Indian reporters at the White House why he was skipping the Taj. "I'll be the president, we've got the scheduler being the scheduler. I'm going to miss a lot of the really interesting parts of your great country. I know that."

Bush has never been a sightseer, and his planned two days in India and one in Pakistan are typical of a president who visited the Great Wall of China in 30 minutes flat. For the most part, the president's India is one of strategic calculations - a hoped-for nuclear deal, a booming market for American goods and an Asian powerhouse to counterbalance China.

But Bush did sound notes of eagerness last week about his first trip to India, the world's largest democracy and a country that has long cast a powerful spell on the Western imagination. People who know Bush say he has an interest in the country through little- known personal and political connections in Texas.

[CyberAnt]

Without reading the article .. my comment is this: Since Bush has lived in TEXAS for many, many years, why wouldn't his major contacts be with people in Texas ..??

Why does this obvious connection seem so irregular .. when to me it just seems logical ..??

[OKIEDOC]

Raj13008 wrote:
Personally I never quite understood the hype around Taj Mahal. Its an Islamic monument built by a muslim king. Why do Indians care about it so much ?

REPLY:

Indians like any building that has potential to be the next Days Inn, EconoLodge or Motel Six.

[Hill of Tara]

Thanks for the ping indcons :)

It's a shame Bush can't find time to visit the Taj Mahal, especially since he'll be so close (well relatively anyway) in Delhi.

Personally I think it's because his security people get nervous whenever he's out in an exposed area. It seems like they always try to keep him indoors as much as possible. Though after I looked at a satellite image of the Taj it looks pretty well secured (in that it would be hard for a Muslim sniper-assassin to get into position.)

Well, he'll miss the chance to see a great historical monument.

[Hill of Tara]

oops I didnt mean for the image I just posted to be so big :(

Please remove it if it's too big and would slow page loading or take up too much space or whatever.

Thanks.

[Hill of Tara]

I posted a satellite image of the Taj Mahal but after I posted it I realized it was WAAAY too enormous so I asked the moderator to remove it. Here's a nice pic I found though, and below is a (hopefully) much smaller version of the satellite photo.

[Hill of Tara]

Even if you dont like the people who built it, the building is still beautiful, and fascinating from a historical perspective.

In Spain they still like the Alhambra and alcazars, even though the Muslims built those.

They are part of history, and should be cherished as such. You should like the Taj Mahal because it is part of history, and a great building aesthetically and architecturally.

[giotto]

The Taj Mahal, in my opinion, is one of three things that lives up to its hype. The Grand Canyon and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony are the other two.