posted February 28, 2006 06:36 PM              

by Arundhati Roy

February 27, 2006

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.

posted February 28, 2006 09:18 PM              

Here are a few measures he's taking...

quote:

---

Indian government has also given special permission for specific arms and ammunition being flown in by the American “advance teams” for Bush’s security in the country. Some 800 personnel are coming to India. US marines were making round over Delhi VVIP skyline including parliament house through helicopters. After 9/11 and the attack on parliament house, these areas have been declared no-fly zones.

---

quote:

---

AFP adds: New Delhi police on Monday placed the entire force of 71,000 officers on high alert and sealed off the hotel where Bush and his entourage will stay during the trip, the second to India by a US president in six years.

---

quote:

---

Police sources told AFP that an advance team of 250 US Secret Service personnel had arrived in four aircraft which also ferried a fleet of automobiles including armoured limousines to be used by Bush and his entourage.

---

posted February 28, 2006 11:54 PM              

Some hi-lites from her article, that are very eye-opening...

"On his triumphalist tour of India and Pakistan, where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects, President Bush..."

"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..."

"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...."

****

posted March 01, 2006 12:00 AM              

To me...India is a land that is mysterious and exotic with all it's history and people...not to mention the Taj mahal...

Nice to meet you....

I am one of those "American Indians."

posted March 01, 2006 12:24 AM              

We are part of the Great Lakes/Woodland "Indians," along with the Ojibway, and Pottawatomi...

posted March 01, 2006 01:41 AM              

Yes, Canada's Ottawa was named after our tribe, I'm pretty sure.

The Three Fires was a confedracy made up of the three tribes I mentioned and was an alliance that promoted common interests....their language and territories were close and they met together for military and political purposes...

posted March 01, 2006 11:19 PM              

Here's the latest from India....

Anti-Bush protests in Delhi, Kolkata

March 02, 2006 02:03 IST

Hours before the arrival of United States President George W Bush, thousands of people held protests on Wednesday in Delhi and Kolkata.

Carrying placards that read 'Bush, go home', the protestors assembled at Delhi's Ram Lila grounds to attack US 'imperialist policies against Iraq and its bullying of Iran over the nuclear issue'.

Addressing the gathering, A B Bardhan charged the US President with 'inciting a war of civilisations' by bullying Iran over its nuclear programme and termed him an 'imperialist aggressor'.

"We cannot welcome him in India," he said, addressing the rally jointly organised by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and other Muslim organisations to protest the Bush visit and publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper.

He said Left parties will take out demonstrations across the country, barring Hyderabad, on Thursday to register their
protest against his visit. In Hyderbad, the protest proceedings would be on Friday, coinciding with Bush's visit to the city.

In all, 54 protest sit-ins by Left parties and Muslim organizations are lined up across Delhi on Thursday.

In Kolkata, around 15,000 students owing allegiance to 12 Leftist student and youth organisations demonstrated before the American Centre, protesting Bush's visit.

posted March 02, 2006 02:55 PM            

quote:

---

In all, 54 protest sit-ins by Left parties and Muslim organizations are lined up across Delhi on Thursday.

In Kolkata, around 15,000 students owing allegiance to 12 Leftist student and youth organisations demonstrated before the American Centre, protesting Bush's visit.

---

Thanks for supplying the information that the left is orchestrating these demonstrations. Even it that wasn't your intent...and I know it wasn't.

That kind of moves these demonstrations out of the spontaneous realm.

posted March 02, 2006 04:13 PM              

quote:

---

In all, 54 protest sit-ins by Left parties and Muslim organizations are lined up across Delhi on Thursday.
In Kolkata, around 15,000 students owing allegiance to 12 Leftist student and youth organisations demonstrated before the American Centre, protesting Bush's visit.

---

Fantastic!

Yep SGA, Rainbow and Day Dreamer, I wholeheartedly agree - isn't it wonderful when people unite for peace! Instead of hunting, killing, shooting and worst of all, profit! Eugh! To hear some people talk though, you'd think peace was a dirty word.

posted March 02, 2006 06:33 PM            

Apparently, those leftist "peace lovers" weren't overly concerned about Saddam murdering about a million Iraqi citizens. Weren't overly concerned when Saddam killed about a million Iranians. And weren't overly concerned when Saddam invaded Kuwait and murdered thousands of Kuwaiti citizens before being thrown out of Kuwait.

posted March 02, 2006 07:35 PM              

quote:

---

'Bush, go home'

---

Once again jwhop you really must read things properly

posted March 02, 2006 08:52 PM              

Than Shwe, huh? Impressive.

where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects

yeah ... that sums it up

posted March 02, 2006 09:12 PM            

Now for what really happened.

New friends set the seal on historic nuclear deal
By Raekha Prasad

Bush wants to sell technology and fuel to India and back democratic counterweight to China

PRESIDENT BUSH marked his first visit to India yesterday by sealing a landmark nuclear energy deal.
The agreement between the world’s oldest and largest democracies allows India to buy nuclear technology and fuel from the US to power its fast-growing economy.

It marks a major shift in American policy towards India, which Washington punished with sanctions after it conducted nuclear weapons tests in 1998.

“Things change,” Mr Bush said as he announced the deal with Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India.“It’s in our interests that India have a civilian nuclear industry to help take the pressure off of the global demand for energy.”

Mr Singh declared: “History was made today.

“Our discussions today make me confident that there are no limits to Indo-US partnerships.”

The US Congress has yet to approve the agreement, and there is some opposition to a deal that rewards a country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and sends an uncertain message to North Korea and Iran.

But it won the important endorsement yesterday of Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He said that it would strengthen the non-proliferation regime, combat nuclear terrorism and enhance safety.

India will list 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities as civilian and open them to international observers. US negotiators agreed to keep India’s experimental fast breeder reactor off the civilian list.

China, India’s northern neighbour, was more cautious, urging India to dismantle its nuclear weapons.

The deal was a high point of Mr Bush’s three-day visit, which is designed partly to woo India as a counterweight to China.

He and the Indian Prime Minister made a very public show of bonhomie on the lawn of Hyderabad House, a relic of the British Raj in Delhi, and later over lunch.

Mr Singh chided Mr Bush for not taking his wife, Laura, to the Taj Mahal, and hoped he would be more “chivalrous” next time. Mr Bush replied: “I’m sorry you brought up the Taj Mahal. I’ve been hearing about it from Laura ever since I told her that we weren’t going.”

But as the two men met, tens of thousands of Indian Muslims and leftwingers protested in cities across India against the President’s visit.

Dozens of politicians, mainly from leftist parties, stood on the steps of the national parliament building chanting “Bush go back” and “Down with Bush”.

One protester, Hannan Mollah, a politician from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said: “The Indian Government should not get into any deal with the Americans. Bush has laid a trap for India.”
Mr Bush said that it was their “common values” that had brought the countries together after decades of mistrust and frostiness.

He said that both shared a respect for religious pluralism, the rule of law and entrepreneurial spirit. “This partnership of ours is substantive and it’s important and it’s strategic,” he said.

America is India’s largest trading partner, and a team of businessmen from both countries met to discuss how to increase trade.

Sales of aircraft and telecommunications equipment led to a 30 per cent increase in US exports to India last year. Indian sales to America, its biggest customer, rose by 20 per cent.

Among the deals announced was the lifting of a 17-year-old ban on Indian mango exports, hailed by Mr Bush. Raising a laugh, he said: “The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes.”

posted March 03, 2006 06:22 AM              

Bush arrives to Indian protests

Some 100,000 people rallied in Delhi against the Bush visit
US President George W Bush has arrived in India after a surprise stop-over in Afghanistan on day one of his first visit to South Asia.
Ahead of his arrival, tens of thousands of people protested in India.

Huge protest rallies were held in Delhi and Calcutta. Speakers said he was not welcome and condemned the Iraq war.

Top officials from both countries have been working to finalise a landmark nuclear deal which could be the cornerstone of Mr Bush's visit.

"Their policy towards humanity is deplorable"
Mohammad Anwar Hussain
Islamic hardliner

Anti-Bush rallies

The deal gives India access to US civilian nuclear energy.

Heavy security was in place as President Bush landed in Delhi. The streets surrounding his hotel were sealed off as hundreds of policemen and US secret service agents took up position.

In a rare gesture, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally received Mr Bush and his wife, Laura, at Delhi airport.

'Bush go home'

Earlier, about 100,000 protesters gathered in the heart of Delhi in the first of many planned demonstrations against the US president.

Most of them were Muslim. They held up black flags and placards reading: "Bush, go home."

"We are against Bush because he is the enemy of Islam," one protester, Shamsuddin Malik, told the BBC.

"He is a war criminal. America has invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Their policy towards humanity is deplorable," said Mohammad Anwar Hussain of the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, a hardline Islamic group.

The BBC's Sanjeev Srivastava in Delhi says that although many are protesting against the Bush visit, there are also many Indians who will welcome him.

Other protests took place in the eastern city of Calcutta and Bangalore and Hyderabad in the south.

In Calcutta, tens of thousands of supporters of left-wing parties marched through the city centre.

Many told President Bush to go home and stop the killings in Iraq. Some called on India not to become what they called a US lackey.

Con't

posted March 03, 2006 06:53 AM              

Indian and US officials have been trying to finalise a landmark deal which will give India much-needed access to US civilian nuclear technology.

"Our people are talking to the Indians, today on the plane," President Bush said during his stop in Kabul.

"Hopefully we can reach an agreement, and if not we will continue to work on it until we do," he said.

The deal was agreed to in principle during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington last year.

But it has been held up by differences over plans to separate India's civilian and military nuclear programmes and open its civilian nuclear facilities to international inspectors.

During his trip, President Bush will visit the southern city of Hyderabad, one of India's high-technology hubs.

Mr Bush will head to Pakistan after India.

In a BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he hoped the US leader would be able to play a role in resolving the long-running Kashmir dispute with India.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4761956.stm

posted March 03, 2006 06:09 PM              

quote:

---

You could be right Cardinalgal.

---

Do you know, I think I'm going to have that framed!!