Diplomacy, Diwali, dinner on Obama's agenda in India - USA Today

MUMBAI, India — A female tribal leader working to get more girls into classrooms, in a rural society that places boys first. A former civil servant running a website to battle corruption. Schoolchildren who got the first couple dancing for the Hindu festival Diwali.These were some of the Indians whom President Obama met Sunday on the second day of his four-nation Asia tour. The issues raised highlight the massive challenges facing this poor but fast-growing nation of 1.1 billion people, to whom Obama promised he would elevate the U.S.-India partnership "to an entirely new level."

He also faced the sensitive question of Pakistan-based terrorism, when asked, at a town-hall-style meeting with students, the question on many Indians' minds: Why hasn't the USA declared Pakistan a terrorist state? Obama stressed the need to work with Islamabad "to eradicate this extremism that we consider a cancer within the country that can potentially engulf the country."

His answers satisfied Swetha Anandhan, a microbiology student at Mumbai's St. Xavier's College, which hosted the event.

"You have to accept his need for diplomacy. I think he's doing a good job, but I will wait for a year or two" to see whether he can really deepen India-U.S. ties, said Anandhan, 20.

Other students welcomed Obama's focus on India, the longest stop of his week-long trip.

"We are a huge nation, with a huge population, and poverty is everywhere," said Mohini Bhattacharya, 21, a post-graduate in microbiology. "But Obama gives us hope we can be on a par with the superpowers," she said.

Kishu Daswani, a professor at Mumbai's Government Law College, said he was withholding judgment.

"The response of India is fairly guarded at the moment," said Daswani, who attended Obama's exchanges with students. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We need to get to specifics."

Obama had dinner Sunday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and was to attend a state banquet tonight with Indian President Pratibha Patil.

Obama will also visit today a memorial to Mohandas Gandhi, who he said Sunday had taught him to be "persistent and stubborn" to achieve his journey.

Tribal leader Sharmi Bai can attest to that. In the patriarchal society of the Garasiya tribe in Rajasthan, Bai, 35, has won two elections to local councils in the past five years through her determination to help girls and women. "Some believe that investment in a boy pays off, but it's wasted on a girl," said Bai about the many village girls forced to help out at home instead of going to school.

The Obamas' first stop Sunday was to join in Diwali celebrations, and a dance, with students at the city's Holy Name School.

Education campaigner Anil Sadgopal expressed disappointment the president chose a private school over one of the city's 2,000 public schools. Similarly, the choice of St. Xavier's, with its English-speaking, upper middle-class students, also ensured Obama reached only the elite, ruling class, he said.

Instead, the U.S. visit should have highlighted the desperate need to increase public funding to change the "horrible" situation whereby 10%-20% of Indian children never enter school, a majority drop out by eighth grade, and only 10% of 18- to 24-year-olds attend college, said Sadgopal, a leader of the All India Forum for Right for Education, a pressure group.

In his meeting with Obama, T.R. Raghunandan discussed India's corruption problem. In August, Raghunandan set up ipaidabribe.com, where Indians can report the bribes they are forced to pay to access public services.

"The poor can't get the services they are entitled to because the rich increase the price by paying bribes," Raghunandan said.

Many Mumbai residents marked the fourth day of their Diwali festival Saturday by visiting the city's famous temple to Mahalaxmi, the goddess of wealth. With offerings of lotus flowers, coconuts and sweets, they prayed for prosperity — and pleaded for clean government.

"All Indian politicians are corrupt, they promise a lot but don't deliver," said Vipul Savla, 32, owner of a suit-making business. "Obama, too, will make promises, but can he deliver?"

As India's economy has boomed, so has his small firm, with 15% annual growth in the past five years, Salva said. He says he is "confident and comfortable" about the future.

"We don't need America, we are powerful now, and we stand on our own," said Dharmendra Bhatt, boss of a real estate agency.

Bhatt echoed widespread concerns here that the USA supports Pakistan without taking effective action to curb Pakistan-based terrorism. He also opposes the opening up of Indian markets to U.S. firms, one of Obama's avowed aims.

"The USA is afraid of India's economic growth, and they know we will be the No.1 economy in the future," Bhatt said.

Obama's visit "won't help me or any of the washermen working here," complained Subhir Kannajiya, at the Mahalaxmi dobhi ghat, an open-air, hand-beaten laundry center so vast it has become a tourist attraction.

"Some are getting rich in Mumbai, but most of the people are still poor," he said.

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India, South Africa could complicate US agenda in UN Security Council - Christian Science Monitor

Washington

The rise of the world’s middle powers was on display at the United Nations Tuesday as India, South Africa, and Germany were all elected to join the big guns on the United Nations Security Council for two years, starting in January.

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The arrival of the South Asian and African regional powers as two of the five new nonpermanent members elected to the Security Council Tuesday could bring new clout to the council – in developing nations, in particular.

But adding India and South Africa to a council where Brazil already holds one of the 10 total nonpermanent seats could also pose new challenges to the council’s old guard, including the United States. Iran, for example, could find a new base of support in the troika of developing powers, all of which have resisted mounting US-led pressures on Iran over its nuclear program.

Brazil voted against the latest round of UN sanctions against Iran in June, and India indicated at the time that it did not favor the resolution and considered sanctions “counterproductive.”

Brazil, India, and South Africa "want to be among the big players, they want to be the ones who get permanent seats [on the Security Council] eventually," says Steve Groves, an expert in international institutions at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The UN General Assembly elected five new nonpermanent members to join the five nonpermanent members that still have a year on their revolving terms. Together the 10 will join the council’s five permanent and veto-wielding members: The US, China, Russia, France, and Great Britain.

India, South Africa, and Colombia ran unopposed for the two-year terms reserved for their regions, while Germany and Portugal were elected to two seats reserved for the “Western” regional group.

Portugal won over Canada in what in the end was the election’s only hotly contested race.

With the addition of India, the Security Council will include all of the world’s major emerging powers known as the BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
At the same time, the newly configured council will also include five of the six countries that are pressing for a permanent seat on a proposed expanded Security Council.

The gathering of so many powerful developing countries on the council at once has some diplomatic experts predicting trouble for the US agenda, be it Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Burma (Myanmar). But Heritage's Mr. Groves says the US should take this "rather unprecedented opportunity" to test the kind of world powers these countries want to be.

"I would hope the US would take this as an opportunity to say, 'OK, Brazil, India, and South Africa, you are among the rising powers of the world and want to play a bigger role, let's see how responsible you are now,' " he says, "When the question is Iran or North Korea, will they act with international security in mind or follow the same regional and parochial interests? Let's see if they really want the responsibility."

The confluence of potential permanent members onto the council – Germany, India, South Africa, Brazil and Nigeria (like Brazil an existing nonpermanent member) – is likely to boost pressure for a reform of the council, which has operated under the same five post-World-War-II powers since the UN’s founding in 1945. Japan, which is also a likely candidate for an expanded council, finishes up its current nonpermanent term in December.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that Germany would “want to use this seat to increase our influence on the reform of the UN.”

Germany already is a member of the group of nations – the council’s five permanent members plus Germany, or the so-called “P5 + 1” – that are attempting to address the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means.

The Iran issue remains unresolved, with Tehran continuing to pursue a nuclear program that it says is peaceful but which world powers suspect is aimed at delivering a nuclear weapon. With Iran moving forward just as the Security Council balance appears to be shifting away from favoring additional punitive action, some diplomatic experts suggest the Iran portfolio could eventually be taken up outside the council by an ad-hoc “collation of the willing.”

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