Gautam Mukunda wrote: > That's interesting. The story I've heard from people > I know in the Indian diplomatic service is exactly the > opposite.
Ah, but I was talking about the public perception. The IFS view is certainly more pro-Bush. The politicos and the media are more or less evenly divided between these two views. The army subscribes to neither, refusing to believe in any such thaw as long as there is any US support for Pakistan. > They felt completely ignored under Clinton, but > thought that Blackwill (among other things) was a sign of > just how seriously Bush took the relationship. Blackwill was another success story, as far as Indo-US relations are concerned. He did manage to alienate some of the bureaucracy by the end of his term, mainly due to his acerbic tongue, but that got him bonus points from the media. :) > Some of this > may be obscured by the US's very public support of Pakistan, > which is necessary to our interests but likely to be > irritating (to put it > mildly) to an Indian public that doesn't see all the > things going on behind the scenes to try to mitigate > the effects of that... *g* 'Irritating' is certainly a mild description. However, declaring Pakistan a major Non-NATO ally took the negative reaction all the way upto the bureaucracy and the politicians. Personally, I didn't mind it all that much as it caused the BJP government a lot of embarrassment, and that is always a good thing. :) Ritu _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
