New Delhi: With less than 36 hours to the US elections, Democrat presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama holds a six-point lead over Republican candidate Senator John McCain, a CNN poll finding revealed.
But the million-dollar question for Indians is — who would be a better steward for Indo-US relations?
In the last decade, both Democrats and Republicans have worked towards strengthening Indo-US ties.
After India's Shakti series of nuclear tests in 1998, it was the Democrat President Bill Clinton who made the first move towards course correction with India.
“Clinton sent his special emissary Strobe Talbot for discussion. Strobe Talbot-Jaswant Singh dialogue lasted for 18 months and that was the turning point in our relationship with the US,” former Ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh says.
Clinton’s Republican successor George Bush went even further, bending the arms of non-proliferation hardliners in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and his own prickly Congress to give India the much-coveted nuclear deal.
Therefore most Indians believe that it makes sense to root for another Republican president.
“Bush administration, especially in the second term, has worked very diligently with India to both create a platform for joint capability development. Another four years of Republican administration would have cemented much more,” Indo-US relations expert Anupam Srivastava says.
A McCain presidency implies continuation of the Indo-US strategic partnership and closer military ties with India. He could give India an opportunity to play a key role in safeguarding Asian security and enter the exclusive and politically powerful G-8 club.
An Obama presidency, on the other hand, maybe more balanced. He will continue the strategic partnership, but would want more concessions from India on global warming and climate change. He could get tougher with Pakistan on terror and open diplomatic doors to Iran, thereby easing some of the pressure on India's Iran policy.
Like all Democrats, Obama can be expected to get tough with India on non-proliferation.
“Obama made it clear in his letter to the PM that though he is quite supportive of the nuclear deal. he intends to send the CTBT and the FMCT for ratification,” Lalit Mansingh says.
And even as an Obama presidency increasingly looks likely as the opinion, India may have to weigh a million dollar option — surrendering the right to test a nuclear device, which is what signing the CTBT means.
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