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Talk clear and straight to Obama, Mr Prime Minister!

It’s a little after 11 am and President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have just had the customary handshake photo-op at the historic Hyderabad House.

So far, it’s been a historic visit in terms of how a US President has approached New India. $10 billion dollars in deals and close to 60,000 American jobs have been saved and created back home. Many more, the President hopes will be created in India as more and more American companies export to India and more and more Americans come to work in India. More importantly, the business deals have been a much needed boost for America’s core industries – whatever is left of them anyway, given that close to 70 percent of American jobs outsourced are from the manufacturing sector and go to China. Little wonder then, that top Republican leader John McCain called for Americans to stop demonising India for stealing American jobs. At the end of the day, however, it’s been an all-important message that an embattled and substantially weakened Obama has sent back home to his constituency. That he’s gotten the job done as he promised he would.

Much has been made of the President Obama’s and First Lady Michelle Obama’s charm offensive. I am not surprised. It is in fact par for the course for Brand Obama, who is today in India, the First Salesman of America.  This is not the America that we’ve grown up idolising. This is an America that has been humbled as much by the economic rise of China, as it has been betrayed by Pakistan. This is a President who has as much been frustrated by Mullah Omar and his gang of merry Taliban, and Osama and the ever-growing  al Qaeda, as he has been introduced to the realities of West Asia and the vital importance of Iran and India.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sits President Obama down for some straight talk – which I hope he does – it is vital that we leverage our economic advantages in the region, to secure our strategic interests.

Let me say right here, that I don’t expect Obama to say much against Pakistan on Indian soil. Islamabad may not be as reliable an ally of America in the War on Terror, but it is where America’s biggest enemies will be cornered for a very long time to come. It is also – most importantly – the little corner of the world, where America would like its biggest enemies to remain cornered for a very long time to come. Have you wondered why the al Qaeda has been recruiting from countries where citizens don’t need visas to go to the US? Washington has realised that the Pakistani Army and the ISI are highly unreliable allies in the War on Terror. At the same time, Obama knows that American money can buy off large sections of the Pakistani Army and ISI, but there will still consciously remain pockets in both establishments, that will not be allowed to be bought over by the Americans. And it will be these very pockets that will continue to foster and pose threats in the long run to America and its direct interests across the world. It wouldn’t really matter as much to America that Pakistan is cottoning up to China. America is doing the same for heaven’s sake. What really matters is getting the ‘real’ Pakistani establishment to keep Osama and his gang, and Mullah Omar and the Quetta Shura and their merry men busy in the erstwhile FATA region and at best, eating into Pakistan’s structure. Which is not very good news for India, if you know what I mean!

Almost simultaneously – but a lot more inconspicuously – there has been a drastic change of track by America is Afghanistan.  All of a sudden, Tehran has – with America’s grudging blessings – been playing an overt role in attempts to secure and stabilise Afghanistan. What this is doing, is not only allowing Russia and Iran to play the counter-balance to Pakistan in Afghanistan, but also allow India – America’s beacon of democracy and stability in the region – to use its influence and understanding to bring Tehran around to a more ‘acceptable’ role and position of influence in the region.

Together with the silent but ever-growing Islamic superpower, Turkey, Iran is in my mind, being brought in to the Afghanistan equation, in a far more pragmatic manner now. It is an axis of power that cannot be ignored or brushed aside, and it is always better to engage constructively with Turkey and Iran, than to try and isolate them. Either which way, it’s never been the people of Iran that the Americans – or Israelis – have been against, but their leaders like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who incidentally, is fast becoming a bit of an embarrassment even for the Ayatollahs. Let us also not forget, that while Afghanistan is vital to our long term plans to keep Pakistan in check, Iran is out gateway to the markets of Central Asia.

India must also realise that America is neither in a position, nor will want to actively foster and support India as the counterbalance to China in the region. It is something we must do ourselves – and mind you, something America will certainly not be averse to!

It is hence time for straight talk Mr Prime Minister. It is time to leverage our markets, our economic growth, our democratic stability and our civilisational influence in the region, to further our strategic interests in the region and beyond.

And there, Mr Prime Minister, lies the rub! It’s time for some straight talk.