November 16, 2018: America might one day, perhaps, in a decade or a decade and half, have their President from Indian origin, said eminent diplomat and former Ambassador Surendra Kumar.
“There are so many talents and resourceful Indian-origin youths in the USA that sooner or later one of them can become the President of the USA. One good thing about the USA is that in this country you can see your dream come true”, opined the former India’s Permanent Representative in United Nations Environment Programme referring to the emergence of several Indian-origin women’s emergence in American power system in recent time.
The diplomat was delivering speech on ‘70 years of India’s Relation with the USA’ in Tripura University as part of Distinguished Lecture series on November 16.
Vice Chancellor of Tripura University Dr V L Dharurkar who was also present on the dais opened that if ever an Indian origin would become the USA President she would definitely by a woman. ‘Americans trusted Indian women more’ said Dr Dharurkar and he referred to Dr Anandi Bai Joshi who was the first Indian woman who went to the USA.
Ambassador Kumar in his speech also dwelt upon President Donald Trump’s America First Policy and felt that it might pose some ‘difficulties’ for the Indian youngsters who would want to get settled in the USA with jobs after studies but that would not be the case for those who could prove themselves.
In fact, the ambassador said, ‘look at the universities and academia in the USA. Some of the most prestigious universities and schools are having deans from Indian origin. In institutions like Harvard, Carnegie, Chicago etc, many Indians or Indian origin academics are making their name’. He had ready reference to support the claim : former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and former NITI Vice president Arvind Panagariya, who had gone back to the USA and these people in demand there.
Ambassador Kumar also mentioned about the pressure on President Trump from various important entities like Google, Apple, or Facebook for allowing have qualified technical experts from other parts of globe.
Ambassador Kumar who also dwelt on USA’s policy in regards to South East Asia, ASEAN countries, Pakistan etc besides India, also felt that though China communist party might have held its grip strongly on its people so far, but in case the Chinese economy slowed down and people face pains a ‘turmoil’ like that of erstwhile USSR in next 10 to 15 years could not be ruled altogether,.
Reacting to a question raised by Vice Chancellor of Tripura University during interactive session, the ambassador who had his stint as a diplomat in China said China made tremendous progress during the last three decades or more. In 1982 there was no five star hotel or for that matter computers in entire China. Now, they could undergo such a huge transformation that many of their cities would put many of the western cities to shame.
“But then China has her own difficulties. When you have a robust economy people can ignore what can be called human urge for freedom. In China the leadership demands loyalty of everybody to the party. The structure is working so far. Now the point is 1 .5 billion people can be insulated for sometimes but not for ever”, said Kumar and then added that what the Chinese people could see all over the world would come to influence them and sooner or later they might demand what other young people demand in other parts of the world. That is the kind of risk China does indeed have, especially if their economy slowed down entailing unemployment or inequality. One man standing in front of a tank at Tiananmen Square was vivid in our mind, but when millions people would come forward things would be difficult for the Chinese leadership, felt the diplomat.
On American relations with Pakistan he said the USA could not cut the Pakistan off altogether until and unless the Afghanistan peoblems were solved. They needed Pakistan but at the same they still did exert pressure on them as far as terrorism was concerned.
Earlier Vice Chancellor Dr Dharurkar in speech dwelt extensively on the Indo- USA relations and how it developed manifold under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi.
Prof Gautam Chakma of Political Science department was also present on the dais.
