The US Treasury secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner has lived in India for many years and has also ran a Centre on Indian affairs in the University of Pennsylvania. Geithner is considered an expert on India and China. Even the head of Obama’s national economic council, Lawrence Summers, is one of India’s staunch supporters. A former treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Summers has a number of friends in India and is a frequent visitor. Others in the House like Congressman Joseph Crowley from New York and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are considered close to India, among others. India can easily dub the Obama’s cabinet a friendly government and now it is up to our diplomats to strengthen existing ties and forge a stronger relationship between the two democracies.

Pappu’s verdict

The recently-concluded assembly elections for six states in India have thrown up several pleasant surprises. In a first since many years, voters in five states whose results have been announced have given a decisive verdict in favour of a single political party. This has ruled out any possibility of a coalition government, which would have been the most likely outcome in case of a fractured verdict and would have essentially meant a government of compromises for the citizens. In Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh, the voters have clearly picked a party and brought it to power with simple majority. Even in Rajasthan, the decision is clearly in favour of Congress and the party will easily establish majority in the House with support from few independent MLAs. In all, this has been a no-compromise election by the voters.

... contd.