NEW DELHI, 4 November 2004 — The Indian establishment along with the country’s stock market reacted favorably yesterday as US President George W. Bush won elections.
While the Foreign Ministry said it would give an official reaction only after formal results were declared, officials admitted off the record that they were happy that Bush would remain president for the second term.
“A special relationship has grown between officials of our Foreign Ministry and the Bush administration over the past four years and its continuity would be good for India,” an official said. Indian foreign policy experts seconded the establishment views. “John Kerry’s election would have brought back the nuclear fanatics of the Clinton regime which saw sanctions slapped on us,” said Bramha Chellany of Delhi-based Center for Policy Research. Democrat challenger John Kerry was more outspoken on the nuclear issue and this may have gone against India if he had been elected, Chellany added.
The share market also reacted positively staging a sharp upward rally after the unofficial news of Bush’s victory. The Bombay Stock Exchange index rose by 1.53 percent, its highest close in six months. The rise was pushed by technology stocks as Bush is seen as less likely to initiate action against US outsourcing.
Former Indian ambassador to Washington Abid Hussain, however, insisted that US-India relations had been set on a trajectory which would have been unaffected by the outcome of the US presidential election.
“US policy toward India is largely dictated by the requirements of American corporates who wanted to invest in India and see it as a market. This will not change with either Republicans or Democrats in power,” he said.
Former diplomat Hamid Ansari said: “There will not be any negative impact on Indo-US relations. Business will continue as usual.”
The average Indian was however amazed that the United States’ apparent failure in Iraq has not proved politically costly for George Bush.
From the minute counting of votes began in the US, Indian television channels kept the viewers informed about the progress of results. The close watch kept by Indian media as well as the public on the Bush-Kerry contest is a new development, for the earlier US elections were not given the same importance in India.
Against the backdrop of Indians being opposed to United States’ invasion of Iraq approach from the very beginning, the Bush-Kerry contest has made them form certain opinion about the American voters‚ their attitude toward rest of the world and their president’s foreign policy.
Taking note of Indians’ interest in the US elections, a concerned lady said: “It is important for Indians to feel the pulse of the American voters.”
As expressed by Yasser Omar, a resident of largely Muslim-dominated residential area, Okhla: “US elections are being discussed here because of Bush’s Iraq policy and the Sept. 11 attacks. His defeat would have been viewed as a lesson for US going overboard regarding Iraq.”
But what about his victory? The general response to this question was that it is not likely to make much of a difference on who stays in White House with Iraq already being a “messy situation.”
Indians Celebrate Relative’s Win
Indian relatives of a US Republican politician danced in the streets and distributed sweets in the dusty northern town of Malerkotla yesterday after he became the second man of Indian origin to be elected to the US Congress. Bobby Jindal, 33, won about 78 percent of the vote to be elected to the US House of Representatives from Louisiana, Indian news agencies reported.
He is the second Indian-American to enter the US Congress after Californian Dilip Singh Saund in 1956. “We are very happy ... we pray for his well-being,” Jindal’s cousin, Harbinder Kumar, told Reuters Television during the revelry in the northern farming state of Punjab, about 250 kilometers north of New Delhi.
One of Jindal’s aunts said the phones at their house had not stopped ringing. Jindal was born in the United States after his parents migrated from India in the late 1960s. He converted to Christianity in his teens and was appointed assistant secretary of health in the Bush administration.
Pakistan’s Reaction
In Islamabad, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Bush enjoy close personal rapport and “personal contacts play a very important role in decision-making in today’s world of politics”.
“We expect (President) Bush’s new term in office will augur well for the Kashmir and Palestine disputes and for Pakistan’s progress and prosperity,” Ahmed told DPA.
