The Hindu Business Line : Now, for the real face of the US

I HAVE a bone or two to pick with Mr B. S. Raghavan's article on the victory of Mr George W. Bush (Business Line, November 5). Understandably, he focusses on its implications on Indo-American relations and in the context of the behaviour of Pakistan.

For many of us in the US, the implications relate much more to the domestic priorities that the Bush Administration will set.

There is a fear of it sending the reforms of the New Deal of Roosevelt and the Civil Liberties advances over many decades; catering to the prejudices of Americans (using the Bible as a stick); stacking the Supreme court with three or four right wing radicals (who are in tune with the fundamentalist Christians); privatising social security to please the main contributors to his election campaign and the major bank financiers of America; destroying the Medicare system as we know it, rather than enlarging its benefits; and denying coverage for the more than 40 million Americans totally lacking in health insurance.

Mr Raghavan's assumption that the reference in the Republican Platform to India is there for a positive purpose is also quite wishful.

India is there for a purpose of course, which is: To be `used' by the Administration for whatever selfish interests they have in dealing with Pakistan or other elements of the Muslim world.

As the war in Iraq goes on and on, India will again be asked to send troops or to take other actions in the interests of the US, but not necessarily the interests of India (except in those cases where sticking it to Pakistan serves a `common' interest between India and the US).

All of this adds up, I admit, to a rather negative final assessment of the meaning of the election. The reason for the pessimistic view is that the US is now ruled by the radical right, aided and abetted by what may be called the `unwashed illiterati'.

Democracy does not work very well when vast numbers, the majority, of its citizens are swayed by motivated propaganda, are uninformed about the facts, and urged to vote their prejudices. The world will now see America's real contemporary face — a quite ugly face, with no redeeming features.

(The author, seeking anonymity, describes himself as an ardent American friend of India.)

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