Posted on 02/28/2006 9:00:39 AM PST by Raj13008
On his triumphalist tour of India and Pakistan, where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects, President Bush has an itinerary that's getting curiouser and curiouser.
For Bush's March 2 pit stop in New Delhi, the Indian government tried very hard to have him address our parliament. A not inconsequential number of MPs threatened to heckle him, so Plan One was hastily shelved. Plan Two was to have Bush address the masses from the ramparts of the magnificent Red Fort, where the Indian prime minister traditionally delivers his Independence Day address. But the Red Fort, surrounded as it is by the predominantly Muslim population of Old Delhi, was considered a security nightmare. So now we're into Plan Three: President George Bush speaks from Purana Qila, the Old Fort.
Ironic, isn't it, that the only safe public space for a man who has recently been so enthusiastic about India's modernity should be a crumbling medieval fort?
Since the Purana Qila also houses the Delhi zoo, George Bush's audience will be a few hundred caged animals and an approved list of caged human beings, who in India go under the category of "eminent persons." They're mostly rich folk who live in our poor country like captive animals, incarcerated by their own wealth, locked and barred in their gilded cages, protecting themselves from the threat of the vulgar and unruly multitudes whom they have systematically dispossessed over the centuries.
So what's going to happen to George W. Bush? Will the gorillas cheer him on? Will the gibbons curl their lips? Will the brow-antlered deer sneer? Will the chimps make rude noises? Will the owls hoot? Will the lions yawn and the giraffes bat their beautiful eyelashes? Will the crocs recognize a kindred soul? Will the quails give thanks that Bush isn't traveling with Dick Cheney, his hunting partner with the notoriously bad aim? Will the CEOs agree?
Oh, and on March 2, Bush will be taken to visit Gandhi's memorial in Rajghat. He's by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the Indian government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe, no shrinking violet himself.) But when Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone, millions of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood on the memory of Gandhi.
We really would prefer that he didn't.
It is not in our power to stop Bush's visit. It is in our power to protest it, and we will. The government, the police and the corporate press will do everything they can to minimize the extent of our outrage. Nothing the happy newspapers say can change the fact that all over India, from the biggest cities to the smallest villages, in public places and private homes, George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America, world nightmare incarnate, is just not welcome
If Bush had any balls left he would do something to stop the offshoring of jobs to that arpit called India.
I'm tired of calling help desk only to get Mr. Apu's wife who has to repeat things 20 times in the support call so that I can make out what the heck she's trying to say... and then without fail she remembers to invite me to come to India.... now why would I want to do a thing like that? If I want a stinky place I can sit close to Michael Moore at the Democratic convention.
India would be a good fit for our 51st state--their economy is pretty good.
I thought that it was unethical to plagerize the New York Times and the Washington Post!
Know your enemy.... thats why she posted this article
If India hates President Bush that much, WHY is he going? Why should President Bush put himself in harms way for people who hate him?
The Nation, pwuh.
Might as well talk to John Lovitz's Compulive Liar on SNL.
"Yeah, that's the ticket".
Michael Moore claims to speak for America too. Funny how no conservative is arrogant enough to act like their views permeate the entire country.
Dear Ms. Aruhhrati...
Ask us if we care.
This lady should take a look at her friends before comparing audiences to zoos...although in their case, a lunatic asylum would be more appropriate.
As an Indian , what I found revealing is that the India hating folks in India - the Indian leftists and Indian muslims , also hate USA - with equal enthusiasm. Particularly since Bush became the Prez and began to take on the Islamic terrorists head on.
Nobody takes Arundati Roy seriously. She's a whore of the hard-core Leftist/Communist bogey.
About a year or so ago, she declared herself a non-citizen of India, and a citizen of the world, or something on those lines.
She's an example of how someone can get high WITHOUT drugs.
Read post 21 and 25. Good reasons why you should not have posted this. Please be careful in the future - there are plenty of India-hating folks here, and posting garbage like this simply inflames them. It serves no purpose at all.
The Nation is hilarious. Someone at my gym has been leaving it and Mother Jones around. I love reading them! I like to leave behind printouts of Steyn and Coulter columns.
Is the author on LSD?????
Hmmmmm. Maybe they would contain their outrage a little better if we stopped outsourcing to InfoSys, WiPro, etc. These foreign writers never seem to understand that if you insult our President then you insult America.
Exactly....after all the venom and hatred she has spewed on India over the years , now that everybody is bored of her India-baiting , she turns attention to US of A and Bush.
I dont have a problem with that - freedom of expression and all that....but is it not so convenient of her to project herself as the voice of India and representative of Indians when she is ranting against America or Bush ?
Hey lady - you dont speak for me !!
This article is bunk. Bush has higher approval ratings than he does in US.
When surveyed, the general Indian population had a higher regard for the United States than any other nation on earth, excepting the United States itself...something like a 79% approval rating. Having been to India on business myself...I can say that that sentiment seemed about right from what I experienced in Bombay, Madras, Bangalore and New Delhi.
So...this drivel will not sell here. As my old Texas upbrining would put it...that dog don't hunt!
Is what she said true about addressing the Indian parliament?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.