The moment the name "Barrack Obama" is uttered and people around the world visualize the African-American who infused huge confidence into the sagging spirits of many Americans. His campaign trail had a lot of fresh air both during the primaries and also in the Presidential campaign. He made it a point to touch the issues pertaining to people and lent in his plans and ideas for the future of America. The pure way in which he connected with his own fellow Americans coupled with growing anger against the Presidency of George Bush transformed into crushing win for the democrats. He was the right man, at the right time and someone many Americans looked up to for a change. His slogan of "Yes, we can!!!" worked wonders and was the right tonic for the people who were hit by the worst recession in six decades.
President Bush's era was painted with lots of hatred and a growing sense of "American Bullyism" was felt by countries across the world. The events like 9/11 and the wars that followed in Afghanisthan and the unnecessary war in Iraq alienated America from the rest of the world. America under Bush regime was spending billions of dollars in the so called "War on terror". This only made America and its people more insecure and is still is. Many terrorist attacks in American-friendly nations followed like the one in London and Madrid.
Back home in America, economy was weaking every quarter and more people lost jobs every month. The bad management practices which crept into the American MNC's laid seeds for a painful economic chaos. Bush's ratings was spiralling down very quickly and was regarded as the worst President in many decades. It all culminated towards the "Lehmann Brothers bankruptcy" last September and American economy had a free fall from then on. This was when a man with broad smile and detailed plans for his country entered the scene- Barack Husssain Obama. The rest is history with him becoming the first ever African-American to chair American Presidency.
All said and done, George Bush could be regarded as a villain in the rest of the world, but somehow he was very close to India. For the first time in decades, America laid out red carpet state salute welcome to an Indian Prime Minister when Dr. Manmohan Singh visited America in July 2005. Bush and Manmohan Singh had a great working relationship and signed an historic Indo-US Nuke deal. India was always quiet close to Bush and he went out of his way to convince American congress on the Nuke deal proposal. Bush's love for India was also seen as a tactical move to counter the growing Chinese economy. Bush was one of the few American Presidents who gave a strong support to India which led Dr.Manmohan Singh to say that Bush was ver much loved by Indian people during his last meeting with the American President. Dr.Singh received lot of flak for that particular remark back home.
Many in India are quiet apprehensive even from the Presidential campaign about Barrack Obama and his policies. His policies of greater check on non-prolifreation and curbing of offshoring jobs to other countries particularly IT jobs to India created lot of panic in India. He was one among the few who raised amnedments to Indo-US nuclear deal in the congress which he later didnot press upon. He was opposed to tranferring sensitive nuclear technology to India. With his election to Presidency in January, India was quiet nervous about the approach he would take towards India. His famous quote of "Say no to Bangalore and yes to Buffalo" was like hearing death knell to many entrepreneurs in India. A myth was being created that Obama would stop India's ascendancy in global stage.
The IT sector was quiet dissatisfied by the protectionist policies charted out by Obama administration which could hit this sector in particular very badly. This was just an illusion. Obama proposed the abolition of tax breaks to those AMERICAN MNC's who shipped jobs to other countries like India. Earlier, American business houses which made profits from their overseas subsidiaries(easily put as "branches") were liable to pay only 2% of their profits as taxes to American government. At a time of huge economic crisis and raising fiscal deficit in America, this kind of low taxes was seen to be quiet biased. So, they have proposed to increase the taxes to those MNC'c to upto 35%. This in no way is applicable or will affect Indian IT companies or any other sector companies for that matter. The proposal itself had a lot of opposition from companies like Micrsoft, IBM and HP who will be affected by this proposal and to top it all these proposal if accepted in American congress will come into effect only from 2011.
The main worry is the cut in H1B1 visas which are necessary for foreign nationals to work in America. With more offshoring mix than onsite in many Indian IT companies now, this could also be weathered.
Other issue which makes Indian diplomats fret is the American U-turn in a sense towards opposition to sharing sensitive nuclear technology to India. This proposal was made by America to other G8 countries but with a lukewarm response. Russia and France have already shot down the proposal and has given full support to India in tranferrring all latest Nuke technology to Indian nuke reactors. Many American nuclear companies have raised voices against this because they could loose lots of nuclear business to their French and Russian counterparts due to this proposal. These are the main fears(mainly myths) that Indians are suffering from the so called Obamaphobia.
One thing that Indians should be clear is "Obama is elected President of America". It would be very short- sighted to discuss whether he would be any good or bad to India. His role as President of America is to work for American people and their improvement. It would be better if we have an eye on what our elected politcians and what they will do for our country's improvement rather than worry about policies and work of Presidents and PM's of other countries towards our country.
