A sand sculpture of US presidential candidates John McCain (L) and
Barack Obama (R), created by Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, is
seen at a beach in Puri on November 2, 2008. SANJIB MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images
It is an oft-repeated refrain in the 2008_election
season that even while America remains torn between Senators Barack
Obama and John McCain, the rest of the world has overwhelmingly chosen
Obama. Poll after poll shows how the invasion of Iraq, the detention of
prisoners at Guantánamo, and the sagging popularity of President George
W. Bush have translated into a battering of America's image abroad—and
by extension, soured the world on a Republican President.
But in the American-style shopping malls and 24/7 call centers of modern India, where McDonald's franchises sell paneer tikka
wraps and American flags adorn the walls of outsourcing firms, the past
eight years of a Republican Presidency have been fantastic. That
approval of a Bush Presidency has overflowed into a wellspring of
support for another Republican Presidency, making India one of those
rare countries in the world where support for Obama's historic run has
not resulted in a landslide of public opinion in his favor. Indeed,
depending on which poll you look at, Indians either prefer McCain and
Obama equally, or Obama by the smallest margin in the world.
India's enchantment with the U.S. has grown in direct proportion to
their economic intertwining: The more business Indians do with
Americans, the more they seem to fall in love with them. Indeed, as the
world has grown disenchanted with America during the Bush Presidency,
Indians have grown to become its biggest fans.
Human Contact
Billions of dollars and millions of jobs have flowed to India since
2000, igniting an economic engine that has changed the fortunes of
urban Indians, and tied their financial futures closely to the U.S., a
country that most will never visit. But as many Indians spent hours on
the phone with American customers, walking them through their daily
tribulations with credit cards and misplaced online purchases, it
created an understanding of America—and Americans—that cut through
geopolitics. "They're a lot like us," says Ranadeep Sen, 24, who spent
three years at a call center that handled computer-related problems for
Midwesterners. "They have their problems, but it's not like they are
all trying to conquer countries and kill civilians. Their cars break
down, their computers break down, they have trouble [paying bills]."
Couple that with a Bush-sponsored nuclear deal, which while creating
tens of billions of dollars of business opportunity for American
companies, also helps India shed its status as nuclear pariah, and
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan wasn't far from the truth when he
declared to President Bush in Washington earlier this year that "the
people of India deeply love you."
In two separate polls carried out by the Pew Global Attitudes
Project and the BBC, Indians have been among the most supportive—and
appreciative—of American foreign and economic policy. Among Indians,
59% held favorable views of the U.S., second only to Nigerians,
according to the Pew survey. Between Obama and McCain, the choice
remained almost a dead heat.
A Divide on Trade Barriers
More recently, a BBC survey of 22 major countries showed 49% of the
respondents preferred Obama, compared with just 12% for McCain—making a
37-point lead for Obama. But in India, that lead shrank to just nine
percentage points. (One caveat: That poll was conducted after the
Democratic convention but before the Republican convention—and before
McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.)
In his popular "Swaminomics" column for India's largest English newspaper, The Times of India,
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar added up the economic benefits of McCain
as compared with Obama, and reached the conclusion that a McCain
Presidency would be best for India. He found that McCain voted against
trade barriers 88% of the time, and against export subsidies 90% of the
time. This contrasts sharply with Obama, who supported both of those
measures. In 2007, according to Aiyar's survey, Obama voted to lower visa quotas for Indian engineers (BusinessWeek.com, 5/18/07) working in the U.S., and also supported subsidies for U.S. farmers. Opposition to those subsidies
(BusinessWeek.com, 7/30/08) which was one reason India and other
developing countries refused to go along with a proposed World Trade
Organization deal earlier this year. "It will be great to have a black
U.S. President," wrote Aiyar. "It would be even greater if he followed
McCain's economic policies."
Even though the excitement of Americans potentially electing a
minority President is palpable in discussions with Indians who follow
the U.S., there is a clear element of self-interest in how most Indians
view the two candidates. "Their ideas on Iraq or terrorism or global
warming all seem the same to me," said Sanjiv Singh, 32, a
bank-employee. Singh, who plans to visit relatives on the West Coast
next year, had driven to the shops in Delhi's crowded Bhogal market on
Monday afternoon in a Chevrolet Spark. "What matters is simple things,"
he says. "Is there going to be more economic growth? Are they going to
back us or Pakistan?"
