Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bush in India: Just Not Welcome
The Nation ^ | Arundhati Roy

Posted on 02/28/2006 9:00:39 AM PST by Raj13008

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antibush; crazy; india; indian; indiavisit; islam; leftist; rant
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last
To: Reagan Man

If Bush had any balls left he would do something to stop the offshoring of jobs to that arpit called India.
I'm tired of calling help desk only to get Mr. Apu's wife who has to repeat things 20 times in the support call so that I can make out what the heck she's trying to say... and then without fail she remembers to invite me to come to India.... now why would I want to do a thing like that? If I want a stinky place I can sit close to Michael Moore at the Democratic convention.


21 posted on 02/28/2006 9:11:35 AM PST by greenthumbedislndr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: pgkdan

India would be a good fit for our 51st state--their economy is pretty good.


22 posted on 02/28/2006 9:12:02 AM PST by richardtavor (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem in the name of the G-d of Jacob)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

I thought that it was unethical to plagerize the New York Times and the Washington Post!


23 posted on 02/28/2006 9:12:28 AM PST by Don Corleone (Leave the gun..take the cannoli)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: razoroccam

Know your enemy.... thats why she posted this article


24 posted on 02/28/2006 9:12:54 AM PST by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

If India hates President Bush that much, WHY is he going? Why should President Bush put himself in harms way for people who hate him?


25 posted on 02/28/2006 9:14:03 AM PST by teletech (Friends don't let friends vote DemocRAT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: weegee

The Nation, pwuh.

Might as well talk to John Lovitz's Compulive Liar on SNL.

"Yeah, that's the ticket".


26 posted on 02/28/2006 9:15:43 AM PST by HonestConservative (Bless our Servicemen!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

Michael Moore claims to speak for America too. Funny how no conservative is arrogant enough to act like their views permeate the entire country.


27 posted on 02/28/2006 9:16:41 AM PST by Democratshavenobrains
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: teletech
If India hates President Bush that much, WHY is he going? Why should President Bush put himself in harms way for people who hate him?"....................India does not hate Bush.Indian leftists and muslims , like the one who wrote this article , hate Bush. They also hate India..a lot more. Jeez.
28 posted on 02/28/2006 9:17:18 AM PST by Raj13008
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

Dear Ms. Aruhhrati...


Ask us if we care.


29 posted on 02/28/2006 9:17:54 AM PST by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done more for this country than any of us will ever know. Go Rush!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

This lady should take a look at her friends before comparing audiences to zoos...although in their case, a lunatic asylum would be more appropriate.


30 posted on 02/28/2006 9:18:58 AM PST by WestVirginiaRebel (Islamofascists don't need cartoons. They're already caricatures.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

As an Indian , what I found revealing is that the India hating folks in India - the Indian leftists and Indian muslims , also hate USA - with equal enthusiasm. Particularly since Bush became the Prez and began to take on the Islamic terrorists head on.


31 posted on 02/28/2006 9:20:23 AM PST by Raj13008
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

Nobody takes Arundati Roy seriously. She's a whore of the hard-core Leftist/Communist bogey.

About a year or so ago, she declared herself a non-citizen of India, and a citizen of the world, or something on those lines.

She's an example of how someone can get high WITHOUT drugs.


32 posted on 02/28/2006 9:23:37 AM PST by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

Read post 21 and 25. Good reasons why you should not have posted this. Please be careful in the future - there are plenty of India-hating folks here, and posting garbage like this simply inflames them. It serves no purpose at all.


33 posted on 02/28/2006 9:26:24 AM PST by razoroccam (Then in the name of Allah, they will let loose the Germs of War (http://www.booksurge.com))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: weegee

The Nation is hilarious. Someone at my gym has been leaving it and Mother Jones around. I love reading them! I like to leave behind printouts of Steyn and Coulter columns.


34 posted on 02/28/2006 9:29:02 AM PST by Huck (Roe/Kelo: You have a right to privacy IN your bedroom; you just don't have a right TO your bedroom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008
"where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects"

Is the author on LSD?????

35 posted on 02/28/2006 9:29:52 AM PST by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008
The government, the police and the corporate press will do everything they can to minimize the extent of our outrage.

Hmmmmm. Maybe they would contain their outrage a little better if we stopped outsourcing to InfoSys, WiPro, etc. These foreign writers never seem to understand that if you insult our President then you insult America.

36 posted on 02/28/2006 9:32:36 AM PST by gcraig
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CarrotAndStick

Exactly....after all the venom and hatred she has spewed on India over the years , now that everybody is bored of her India-baiting , she turns attention to US of A and Bush.

I dont have a problem with that - freedom of expression and all that....but is it not so convenient of her to project herself as the voice of India and representative of Indians when she is ranting against America or Bush ?

Hey lady - you dont speak for me !!


37 posted on 02/28/2006 9:32:44 AM PST by Raj13008
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

This article is bunk. Bush has higher approval ratings than he does in US.


38 posted on 02/28/2006 9:33:46 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008
What a bunch of bravo sieera popeycock! A leftist/liberal article from a leftist/liberal rag.

When surveyed, the general Indian population had a higher regard for the United States than any other nation on earth, excepting the United States itself...something like a 79% approval rating. Having been to India on business myself...I can say that that sentiment seemed about right from what I experienced in Bombay, Madras, Bangalore and New Delhi.

So...this drivel will not sell here. As my old Texas upbrining would put it...that dog don't hunt!

39 posted on 02/28/2006 9:34:05 AM PST by Jeff Head (www.dragonsfuryseries.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raj13008

Is what she said true about addressing the Indian parliament?


40 posted on 02/28/2006 9:34:29 AM PST by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson