Even the coconut trees were carefully combed Bombay to make any inappropriate coconut off the alarm to the passage of Barack Obama and his two hundreds of secret agents. U.S. President. UU. Began yesterday in the Indian megalopolis with the long Asian tour that aims to move on to the proper election received at home this week. The choice of the economic capital of India is not casual, because it allows Obama to unite the mantra of "jobs for EE. UU." with the image of defiance to terrorism.
And this month marks two years of Islamist assault Bombay, which killed 166 people, including six Americans. U.S. President. UU. and his wife, Michelle, have not missed the symbolism of staying in the Taj Mahal hotel - along with his entourage have booked the entire historical building, completely restored after being burnt down. Obama spoke with survivors and made a speech of religious harmony in which praised the dynamism of Bombay.
However, it has bothered to omit any reference to Pakistan, home of the terrorist. India says it has proof that the Pakistani military intelligence that coordinated assault, the group work for the liberation of Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Taiba. But Obama himself depends on the Pakistani military to an orderly exit from Afghanistan, an important condition to run for a second term. And his fear of upsetting Pakistan took him a few days before departing towards India, to promise a visit to Islamabad in 2011 and 2,000 million in military aid for the next five years. Even the rhetoric of India as a counterweight to China has lost the strength it had in the Bush era, although the joint military exercises are increasing. Correspondingly, for not disturbing their hosts, Obama did not act in public the word that India does not want to hear foreign mouth: Kashmir. The region occupied by India and established his particular intifada.
Are days of good feelings in India. The Taj Mahal hotel owner, tycoon Ratan Tata, has returned the favor of Obama with a donation of $ 50 million to the Harvard Business School, the largest in its history. Yesterday and the day before, the country celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival marked, with a profusion of lights, fireworks and firecrackers, repressed in the south of Bombay by the deployment of security that went to sea with an aircraft carrier and 34 U.S. ships.
In Bombay, Barack Obama visited the museum house of Gandhi, "a hero to the world", where his dedication and left half a century before Martin Luther King. She then went to another hotel damaged, the Trident, Oberoi, which brought together the cream of Indian capitalism with CEOs of U.S. corporations. Several trade agreements - with Boeing, General Electric and Harley-Davidson, primarily, that took months in gestation were signed yesterday to give Obama the upper hand to present "more than 20 agreements totaling 10,000 million dollars and that will help create 50,000 jobs EE work. UU.. "
After exorcising the equation "India as a outsourcing," Obama will be today and tomorrow in New Delhi on a visit with political weight. Although Obama has warned India's diplomacy that his dream of becoming a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN is "very complicated."
No travel, however, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, as the gossips because his advisers wanted to avoid the photo of the president with his head covered, as is required in Sikh places of worship, not to feed the canard of Obama criptomusulmán. Also, his wife was yesterday without visiting Kamathipura, the largest district of prostitution in the world, after the Maharashtra government said it would not talk. Instead, he played hopscotch with orphans in college. The chairman of that state was Obama who received foot steps of Air Force One, still wearing sunglasses. And several of his ministers boycotted the reception at the U.S. consulate. UU. humiliating because they felt they were required to attend to the DNI.