Barack Obama’s tell-all book, ‘A Promised Land’ is causing quite a stir especially in India as his comments on Rahul Gandhi has caused major heartburn amongst India’s left-liberal community. In yet another startling revelation, Obama’s memoir claims that Manmohan Singh had resisted the calls to retaliate against Pakistan after the dastardly 26/11 terror attacks.
In the first volume of his memoir, ‘A Promised Land’, Former US President Barack Obama has made some fascinating observations which give the readers a peek behind how the world politics works.
In what can be read as an act of cowardice and lack of political will, Obama reveals that the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had resisted calls to retaliate after Pakistan sponsored terrorists wreaked havoc in Mumbai during the 26/11 terror attacks.
Recalling his conversation with Singh during his visit to India in December 2010, Obama observed that, “He feared that rising anti-Muslim sentiment had strengthened the influence of India’s main opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In uncertain times, Mr President, “the call of religious and ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating. And it’s not so hard for politicians to exploit that, in India or anywhere else,” Obama wrote about the conversation in his memoir.
Similar sentiment in the past has been echoed by various Army personnel and veterans who were itching for revenge against Pakistan, only to be turned down by the then UPA government at the Centre.
Fortunately, India has come a long way after the 26/11 attacks, with India putting a high price on the lives of its Military personnel and civilians as it successfully conducted two surgical strikes deep inside Pakistan controlled territories after the Uri and Pulwama terror attacks.
Interestingly, Obama is increasingly close to being “cancelled” by the Indian left-liberal community after his observations on Rahul Gandhi. The former US President wrote, “But there was a nervous, unformed quality about him (Rahul Gandhi) as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion for mastering the subject.”
While lauding Manmohan Singh for his honesty, Obama was quick to write about the worst kept secret in Indian politics. “In fact, he owed his position to Sonia Gandhi…more than one political observer believed that she’d chosen Singh precisely because as an elderly Sikh with no national political base, he posed no threat to her forty-year-old son, Rahul, whom she was grooming to take over the Congress Party,” wrote Obama.
Rumour has it Kapil Sibal has nominated BO as CongI pres.