Thursday, April 16, 2009

India's Elections

India is in the process of holding elections, although you might not know it because there has been so little commentary about them in the U.S. It is amazing how little attention the U.S. pays to India in general. Even though it is one of the largest, most populous countries in the world, a fellow democracy, rapidly developing, and (partly) English-speaking, the U.S. more or less ignores India unless something specific comes up.

Given that we are embroiled in the Afghanistan-Pakistan situation, and that our dealings with Pakistan are of major interest to India, you might think U.S. analysts would be carefully dissecting the Indian elections and weighing-in on how the results might affect relations with America. But if you go to the New York Times website, you have to search to find anything about India. The Wall Street Journal does have a whole section about the Indian elections, but in general they are not big news in the U.S. One of the good things about Bush administration foreign policy was that it payed more attention to India and helped improve relations. Hopefully we will be able to continue tostrengthen ties under the Obama administration.

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