Why Does Barack Obama Not Like India?

This is my thesis based on Barack Obama's history.

If you read the two books by Obama- Dreams of My Father, and Audacity of Hope, you may notice how he makes only a passing reference to his life spent in Pakistan and associations with Pakistani nationals. It does not take much to answer why he left out experiences and friendships that so greatly effect his foreign policy now, at a time when Americans were wary of it. It is unfortunate that neither his parents nor grandparents are alive today for interviews, for those would have helped greatly.

Obama was born in Hawaii, and his Muslim father soon left him and his mother to pursue greener pastures. This abandonment was the single event that had the most effect on Obama. After Hawaii, when Obama joined college in California, he befriended Pakistani nationals, more so than African-Americans. These friendships provided his first exposure to Islam after Indonesia. Few of these Pakistani nationals will later go on to become major fund raisers and bundlers for his presidential campaign, and unfairly effect his foreign policy on South Asia. As a college student with not enough monies, his hunting expeditions to Pakistan costing a couple of thousand dollars each were out-of-reach. But his Pakistani friends bank-rolled those trips, thus creating obligations that will later distort his foreign policy views on South Asia ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be", William Shakespeare). During this time, as part of his self-confessed search for why his father abandoned him so readily, Obama was more attracted to his absentee father's religion, than to his ethnicity (Studies have shown how an abandoned child is more likely to want to become like the parent who abandoned him). In one of his trips, he along with his Pakistani friends, also visited the Indian city of Hyderabad with a majority Muslim population. Note that his mother was also stationed in Pakistan around this time, working on an international agricultural project.

As a political aware student in the 1980s, these friendships with Pakistani nationals and Pakistan helped him form views favorable to Pakistan (He also learned how to correctly pronounce "Pakistan"). Later, on his move to the US North-East, he ran in to more Pakistani nationals who helped him, among other things, find places to stay. These friendships also helped him sympathize with Muslim causes around Chicago and the rest of the world. All along, his stack of obligations and favors was getting higher and higher.

Now fast-forward to Obama's presidential pursuit, when he emphasized these experiences whenever questioned on South Asian politics. Also, as Clinton's Indian connections started paying-off, he let slip his prejudice against India built during his earlier friendships, when he accused her of acting like an Indian politician. In all fairness, he later stopped that campaign attack when he felt it was hurting more than helping his campaign message.

Soon after election, he expressed his desire to nominate Bill Clinton as a mediator on South Asia out-of-the-blue, on the behest of his Pakistani friendships. For terrorists seeking attention in that part of the world, this was the spot-light they were waiting and training for. And they ramped up their killing efforts, culminating in the Mumbai attacks. Thus, Obama indirectly caused the deaths in that attack, a la Biden. He also easily brought the Pakistani argument that its eastern borders warranted more soldiers than Af-Pak. After being sworn in, he was also quick to triple the financial aid to Pakistan, knowing fully well that money is a fungible commodity and will be redirected to terrorism against India (Refer to various congressional testimonies since). His administration is also increasing the status of Pakistan to that of Egypt when it comes to financial aid. Obama was also instrumental in removing the condition from the financial aid that specifically required Pakistan to not divert monies against India.

All these actions reveal South Asian prejudices shaped during his friendships with Pakistani nationals and trips to Pakistan, ignoring the concept of Natural Allies between shared cultural values built over time.