American President Barack Obama’s India trip earlier this month has got an uninhibited applause from senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani.
“From India’s point of view, Barack Obama’s New Delhi trip has been very satisfying,” Advani wrote in his recent blog post.
The former leader of the opposition also lauded the U.S. President’s address to the Indian Parliament in which he backed India’s demand for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and also sent a jab at Pakistan.
“His Central Hall address to Members of Parliament was really superb, both in content as well as in its style of delivery,” blogged Advani.
However he lamented that the 2009 Nobel laureate did not side with India on the Kashmir issue.
“For all Indians, what he said was important, and heartening. But what he omitted to say, I think, was no less important. There was no mention of the word Kashmir in his speech!” wrote Advani.
“In the course of his election campaign in 2008 Barack Obama had remarked that ‘working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way’ would be among the critical tasks of his administration,” recalled the veteran politician.
He said that when leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj met the U.S. President she told him ’emphatically’ that the America’s actions gave the impression that “for Washington, Pakistan is an ally, India is a market”.
“I feel his speech in Parliament’s Central Hall was a conscious effort to dispel this impression that India for Americans is just a market, nothing else,” said Advani.