varnam

Elections in US and time for Vir Sangvi to come up with ridiculous claims

And yet, when the results came in and Bush made his triumphant victory speech, I couldnâ??t find a single Indian who was happy, pleased or relieved â?? other than government officials, of course. Most of us knew little about Kerry and we had reason to be perturbed by his comments on outsourcing. But nearly everybody I know wanted him to win. [No longer we all Americans]

In India, the world's largest democracy, Bush's victory was seen as good for business. Raja Mohan, a professor of South Asian studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, noted that India has done more business with the United States in the past four years than in the previous 40. "We believe the relationship is poised for a significant expansion," Mohan said, "and the return of Bush raises that prospect. [KRT Wire | 11/03/2004 | World reaction to Bush victory mixed]

News that Mr. Kerry had conceded the election to Mr. Bush was greeted with joy in the industry. "We are very happy that Bush is back," said Kiran S. Karnik, president of the industry group Nasscom, or National Association of Software and Service Companies. "The president's track record has been of recognizing the advantages of free trade," Mr. Karnik said. Mr. Bush's re-election will bring out the latent demand for outsourcing and lead to more offshoring announcements by companies, he said. [The New York Times > Business > World Business > An Industry in India Cheers Bush's Victory]

But the Hindus usually seemed to approve of Bush. What I found so interesting about the Hindu view of Bush was how well informed it was on the matter of what was in their interest.

Hindus, when asked, would cite several reasons why Bush was better for India than Kerry. Outsourcing was usually at the top of the list, but also many Hindus like the fact that Musharaff is Bush's puppet. (At least that was how they saw it.) They feel like he was under Bush's control and would be prevented from playing a real spoiler's role in Kashmir. They also feel that India and the US have Pakistan in a vice-grip of sorts.

And they also approved of Bush's support of Israel. Why? Well, they get a lot of high-tech weaponry from the Israelis, and they seem to approve, generally, Sharon's policy of knocking Arab heads around.

I picked up several pre-election newspapers and magazines. All of them had a list of pros and cons on the two presidential candidates. And all of them were uniform in their support of Bush. Again, I want to add that it seemed to me that the don't like or dislike Bush per se, it's just that they think he will serve their interests better. It was all very detached and 2+2=4 like.

Surprising to me. Rarely have I traveled in a place that was so supportive of Bush. I guess you can put India in the Red-State column. Who knew ?
The Hindu Bush and The Muslim Bush

So when Vir Sanghvi says he could not find a single Indian who was happy with Bush getting elected, he was just trying to project his beliefs on the 1 billion population.