Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 8 May 2009

           Obama’s Bangalore Offensive

PUNISHES INDIA, REWARDS PAKISTAN

By Shivaji Sarkar

The latest call of the US President, Barack Obama, to its outsourcing companies to shun Bangalore and instead adopt Buffalo in New York is a clear indication of the convoluted American policy. The Obama Administration tends to punish a peaceful hi-tech India that has helped its economy and reward a failed State of Pakistan with almost a trillion dollar promise of dole.

The US tends to give the impression here that terror outfits like the Taliban are “good”, and the ISI despite its close links with Al Qaeda and anti-Indian terrorist organizations is preferable. Indian IT firms, which help its official organizations’ help create firewalls, surveillance mechanism and help the global peace process, can simply be dumped. The US has been rewarding Pakistan for its renegade behavior since the 9/11.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, in his autobiography, has claimed success in hoodwinking the US to grant almost a trillion dollars to “fight terror”. He claimed that the US money boosted the tottering economy of Pakistan. What he does not say is that a sizeable amount of this dole has gone to the ISI and through it to the Taliban. No wonder the US Senate on May 5 approved Obama’s proposal for $1.5 billion annual aid to Pakistan for five years.

Even after a decade of drowning its taxpayers’ money in renegade Pakistan, the US is nowhere near victory nor in a position to capture its prized trophies of Al Qaeda or Taliban functionaries. Rather it appears that it wants to promote the Taliban. It is no secret that the US had created the Taliban in the 80s to fight the Soviet Army in Afghanistan.

May be, the US wants to push the outsourcing cost to India by about 50 per cent to fund its new-found allies in Pakistan. Indeed, this is dangerous for India. It already has to fight the foes in Pakistan, spend a large part of its GDP in maintaining surveillance on the border and to tackle the ongoing proxy war. In addition it now has to fight a “friend,” the US.

Apparently, India bashing is a populist move for Obama. He has been lashing out at us either by naming directly or obliquely all through his election campaign. Now, he certainly cannot move away. So he lashes out at the prevailing US system, saying it encouraged its taxpayers to pay “lower taxes if they created a job in Bangalore, India, than one in Buffalo, New York”.

Obama forgets that Bangalore has not only added to the US corporate profits, but also to the US Government’s revenue. If the US has mismanaged its economy, Bangalore has certainly not contributed to it. Yes, Pakistan and the terrorists based in and around it have definitely bled it. In fact, Pakistan-based terrorists have kept its Army engaged from Georgia, Chechnya, rather from New York, to Kabul-Islamabad. Ironically, for each such terrorist operation Pakistan gets richer.

Obama tends to punish poor India, which could not get even 1,00,000 jobs from the rich US shores. Most other outsourced jobs have come from Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and some even from China. Why does Obama have a grouse against Bangalore? Or is this the tip of the iceberg of the US’ new policy that is likely to rivet around India-bashing?

If it is, then it would not be the last US onslaught on India. Of late, the US has been trying to mount the CTBT and NPT pressure on it. These are mere ruses to keep New Delhi on its toes. The moves aimed at us are not merely by Obama but also by different players in the US economy. Clearly, they do not want to see India rising as a significant competitor.

Despite the civil nuclear deal, the US has not yet lifted the ban on exports to India’s nuclear and many other hi-tech organizations. It has not yet issued the declassified list. It is no mystery that since 1974 Pokharan–I blast the US has been creating one hurdle after another in India’s technological progress. Don’t forget our scientists have fought all odds to create this technological base and Indian IT firms do not owe a single paisa to their success to the US. These have come up on their own and have created 22 lakh jobs of which only 7,89,000 are in the BPO sector.

Obama’s “tax plans to bite India” should come as a signal to the BPOs engaged in work with the US. They should be prepared for further stringent US provisions. Importantly, the move raises a moot question: why the Government (read UPA) spent a whopping Rs 12 crore-odd for lobbying in the US since 2005. This apart, during the past one year alone, the Indian companies have spent a total of Rs 2.25 crore --- Nasscom $ 70,000 (Rs 35 lakh), RIL $ 190,000 (Rs 94 lakh), Sun Pharma $ 5000 (Rs 2 50,000), Chemicals  Cos $ 10,000 (Rs 5 lakh) in addition to the Government’s $ 180,000 (over Rs 90 lakh).

Sadly, Obama seems to forget that this money too benefits the US. It is for the Indian government and companies to ask themselves the rationality behind such operations. It is time to break from the US-centric operations and invest this money in some other emerging fertile lands. After all since the 60s, Indian brains have helped the US prosper, particularly with investment in human resources. Easy and economic education costs in India helped create that base. Instead of being grateful to New Delhi, the US tends to always lean towards Islamabad.  

The present move has also come at a time, when New Delhi is besotted with the apprehension of the fall-out of Taliban’s aggression. Strangely enough though the US has summoned both Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for talks, it has not shown the least willingness to mount an offensive against the Taliban. The US very well knows that Pakistan’s Army may have the capability but lacks the will to fight its own men.

Obama’s Bangalore offensive should be seen as a ploy to divert attention from his failure in Af-Pak policy. He wins easy sympathy at the cost of India. It is time New Delhi and its major corporates, particularly the IT sector, look for newer pastures and increase their strength. They need to do it and take the nation out of the recession blues. They have the capability. Only they now have to formulate a new non-US centric policy. –INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)