By Mike Ghouse
The Indian Lobby is in a good position to march ahead, as much as it is learning from the Israel lobby, it can also learn that going too far, can bring negative returns.
A healthy balance is more sustainable in the long run, than taking advantage of one another. India has always sought a middle ground, has never waged a war on another county, and neither has it aggressively sought to frighten the little nations and rule. It is paying off and we are going to have to sustain that policy and not fall prey to our new relationship.
We have seen rise and fall of empires, almost every time, the fall was followed by an un-just rule.
America was the superpower for years but when we resorted to un-just wars, taking sides for a quick benefit rather than a just benefit, we have lost and we are losing it now. Hopefully the slide will end with our current President, who has a disapproval ratings of 74% from Americans. Further, we want the next President who would seek cooperation of other nations in doing good things, and not waging wars, we want the president to lead the world through the example of our democracy, of our respect for peace and our respect for human dignity and certainly not alienating and creating enemies around the globe”.
India earned her respect by being non-aligned all the way from independence through the 60’s. Then we tilted towards Soviet Union and now towards America . This relation is natural, both of us are democracies and we have a common interest to let the world see the light of democracy, and see that people run their own lives and their citizens are treated with dignity, liberty and justice.
Imperialism has gotten away in the human history; but only for short term. There is a old saying in Urdu/Hindu ” Jis ki laathi, us ki bhains”, whoever owns the stick drives the cattle.
Israel lobby had gone too far to the detriment of American interests. It started out with a legitimate need; to protect and defend Israel ‘s right to exist. Power is corruptive, and the lobby is no exception to that. In their enthusiasm and their ability to influence the President, Senate and the house, they have gone far off bringing diminishing returns. For every two steps they take, they will have to back at least one, and if they still don’t get it, the law of karma takes over and they may have to back peddle several steps to catch up with the eternal act of balancing. Had they been just to America and Israel both, they would not be facing the issues they are encountering today.
I hope the India Lobby takes the approach of sustainability of their policy rather than what can we get today? There are always a few petty ones around, who are less for India , but more against other nations. Their agenda is hate, and they make their way into the lobby to get their agenda taken care of, they pretend that they are for India , but they are a liability to India . As Indians, we have to contain these extremists among us, if not we could lose momentum. It is time we check them out, each one of them.
We stand to gain a whole lot for both the nations, if we remain true to the ideal for what is good for India has also got to be good for America .
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Mike Ghouse is the president of the Foundation for Pluralism. He can be reached at [email protected].