New Delhi: Even though Barack Obama hasn’t been to India before 2010 Presidential visit, former US President shares a ‘cultural connection’ dating back to his childhood years.
Obama, in his upcoming memoir – ‘A Promised Land’ recalls his childhood memories and shares that he used to listen to Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata when he was very young.
“Maybe it was because I’d spent a part of my childhood in Indonesia listening to the epic Hindu tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or because of my interest in Eastern religions, or because of a group of Pakistani and Indian college friends who’d taught me to cook dahl and keema and turned me on to Bollywood movies,” Obama writes.
On Mahatma Gandhi, Obama writes that his non-violent campaign for India’s independence from Britain hadn’t just helped overcome an empire and liberate much of the subcontinent, but also set off a moral charge that pulsed around the globe.
“More than anything, though, my fascination with India had to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Along with (Abraham) Lincoln, (Martin Luther) King, and (Nelson) Mandela, Gandhi had profoundly influenced my thinking,” he writes.
How Obama views Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure
Obama also writes about his conversation with former PM Manmohan Singh during his visit to India in 2010.
“Then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had resisted calls to retaliate against Pakistan after the 26/11 attacks, “but his restraint had cost him politically,” he says.
“He feared that rising anti-Muslim sentiment had strengthened the influence of India’s main opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In uncertain times, Mr. President,” the prime minister said, “the call of religious and ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating. And it’s not so hard for politicians to exploit that, in India or anywhere else,” Obama wrote about the conversation.
Obama said he found Singh to be “wise, thoughtful, and scrupulously honest.
“Singh and I had developed a warm and productive relationship. While he could be cautious in foreign policy, unwilling to get out too far ahead of an Indian bureaucracy that was historically suspicious of US intentions, our time together confirmed my initial impression of him as a man of uncommon wisdom and decency…. What I couldn’t tell was whether Singh’s rise to power represented the future of India’s democracy or merely an aberration,” writes Obama in praise of Dr Singh.
A Promised Land – 1st volume of book hits stands
In his soon-to-hit stands book, Obama narrates his journey from 2008 election campaign to the end of his first term with the audacious Abbottabad (Pakistan) raid killing dreaded Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden.
‘A Promised Land’ is first of the two planned volumes. It is set to hit bookstores globally on Tuesday.
