It is not that Washington has done something like this for the first time. In fact, the US has got a checkered history of taking gratuitously arbitrary and insensitive stances, with a singular objective of fulfilling their own selfish motives. I’m referring to Obama’s recent trip to China and his most ridiculous statement of how China can play an important role in making the Indo-Pak relationship healthier. Not just this, Obama has clearly indicated a visible tilt towards China by offering to strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia and work together with China to promote peace, stability and development in that region!
Although US Presidents have had a sparkling history of purposefully committing such extravagant blunders (for selfindulgent American gain), Obama seems to surpass them all, as it has been extremely rare for any American President to acknowledge China as a harbinger of ‘peace’ in South Asia, and that too with respect to India and Pakistan! It is not that Obama is sophistically ignorant of Chinese adventures in Tibet, Taiwan and India. And after knowing what China has been doing, it is clearly insane for Obama to even acknowledge China’s role in the restoration of any kind of peace process in any region across the world! What is even more outrageous is the very fact that going by Obama’s apparent rational outlook, he should have ideally discussed the infringement of the Chinese in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, their perpetual intervention in the North-East region of India, their blatant aid and support to the Naxal movement in India, along with funding of Pakistan’s terror camps. Forget India, the least that was expected of him was to discuss China’s hostility towards Dalai Lama. None of these seemed to be there in Obama’s agenda.
Now the question that arises is why did Obama issue such artful statements? Why, all of a sudden, has China seemingly become so important that Obama has had to force a feel-good atmosphere by making such statements? There are two visible reasons that might have instigated Obama to issue such baseless statements. First, as I’ve written in one of my columns earlier, Obama’s popularity index is sliding down by the day. And amongst a host of other reasons – which includes health, employment and economic revival issues – one reason that has become a huge contention is American expenditure on Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, the Obama administration is struggling to mange the investments to send 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, which is an imperative now as the jihadi and Taliban forces have become extremely active, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But given the current economic environment, it is becoming extremely challenging for Obama’s administration to send these troops to Afghanistan. And Obama knows that China can be hugely instrumental in stabilizing Afghanistan. Just like his diplomatic and self-serving predecessors, Obama’s tilt towards China is nothing else but an effort towards laying down a red carpet to them to contribute towards stabilizing Afghanistan. Now, the
