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[illusion8]

I meant people of the caliber of those managers. These guys literally stole the thunder from George Bush Sr., and McCain - one a sitting President and the other a seasoned "maverick" politician, sometimes liked by the Democrats!!

Does Bobby Jindal have a good enough chance to be republican candidate for presidency?

 

[gubbi]

Does Bobby Jindal have a good enough chance to be republican candidate for presidency?

Too early to say.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

I meant people of the caliber of those managers. These guys literally stole the thunder from George Bush Sr., and McCain - one a sitting President and the other a seasoned "maverick" politician, sometimes liked by the Democrats!!

The truth is that only a major scandal, or a series of small scandals like Benghazi or the illegal prisoner exchange for the traitor Bergdahl will be enough to swing the 2016 election. The Democratic base needs to be demoralized, so it won't turn out to vote, and only the steady drip of Obama's unprecedented incompetence can achieve that. Short of such a scandal, the Democrats will simply bribe the electorate through further handouts to win the presidential election.

 

[wolfschanzze]

Modi is impressing more & more. I like the fact that he simply does not allow for too much predicability in his actions. While all the "experts" are saying one thing (in this case. that he will be diffident towards the U.S. and probably be in no hurry to visit), he is surprising people with how sharp he is turning out to be. Did it with the invite to the swearing in & now this.

He ruled his state for 3 terms , he knows when and where to play his cards and keep opposition guessing.his moves.
Grandmaster always thinks 3-4 moves ahead in chess.
It was out of his sheer will he rose from a CM to PM and made USA roll out red carpet for him,when they shunned him for so long.Now USA will speak on amicable terms so will all neighbours do.
Everyone respects a strong decisive country lead by a strong leader and will try to mend fences naturally

Your American buddies are probably Republicans. Hillary Clintion is by most standards a very formidable politician and by most reports, including that of a famous Republican, Bob Gates, a very sharp operator & team player. It would require some extraordinary Republican to be a serious opponent, Ted Cruz won't be enough.

Then "GET MODI campaign" won't do any good, instead it will only hasten and act as a catalyst for RIC.
Good for us bad for them

 

[Kloitra]

Modi 2.0: How India's new prime minister may have evolved - CSMonitor.com

Modi 2.0: How India's new prime minister may have evolved
ByShashi Tharoor, Op-ed contributor/ June 5, 2014

WhenNarendra Modiswept to a dramatic victory inIndia’s general elections, becoming the first prime minister in three decades to command an absolute majority in the lower house of India’s fractious parliament, many in India worried about what his victory would portend.

To political opponents and members of India’s liberal intelligentsia, Mr. Modi was a divisive, sectarian, authoritarian figure who had presided over the massacre of some 1,200 innocents, mainly Muslim, as chief minister of the state ofGujaratin 2002. The thought of such a figure leading a diverse and multi-religious polity that had long been built on the “Nehruvian consensus” developed by the Congress Party was anathema to many.

IN PICTURES: India: inside the world's largest democracy

Modi overcame this negative perception, rebranding himself as an apostle of development and pointing to his successful record in Gujarat, a state of high growth rates that under his leadership has been a magnet for investors. His brilliantly organized, lavishly funded election campaign saw “Hindutva,” the ideology of Hindu chauvinism with which he and hisBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) have long been identified, relegated to the back burner, while Modi promised voters he would remake India in the model of prosperous Gujarat.

The electorate rewarded the BJP – which had never previously won more than 186 seats in India’s 543-member Lower House – with 282 seats, as the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP claimed 333. The ruling Congress Party, of which I am a member, was relegated to its worst showing in history, winning a mere 44 seats.

To almost everyone’s surprise, however, Modi and the BJP have eschewed the hubris and triumphalism they might have been assumed to have earned with their sweeping victory. In the weeks since his election, Modi has been conciliatory and inclusive in both his pronouncements and his actions. I was a beneficiary of this unexpected generosity on the very day of his victory, when I received a startling tweet of congratulations from him on my own victory in my constituency. “Let us work together to move India forward,” he declared in his message to me.

This tweet to a prominent adversary, with whom he had crossed swords in the past, was one of many signals to the nation that he was putting old enmities behind him. “I will be prime minister of all Indians, including those who did not vote for me,” he announced in one of his first speeches. Cynics might point out that this was only prudent, since his party won its resounding majority with just 31 percent of the national vote, benefitting from the Westminster-style “first-past-the-post” system in constituencies with multiple contesting parties. But coming as it did from a man with a reputation of brooking no dissent and riding roughshod over opposition during his 12 years at the helm in Gujarat, it was a welcome surprise.

In a series of speeches, Prime Minister Modi has gone out of his way to avoid confrontational language, to omit issues and imagery that India’s religious minorities would find offensive, and to extend a hand of friendship to his critics. After having attacked the large number of government projects and schemes named for members of the Congress Party’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty during the election, he stopped his ministers from renaming these programs, saying it was more important to get them to work more effectively. His early cabinet appointments rewarded the party’s brighter and younger professionals, omitting many of the Hindu nationalist veterans and rabid ideologues who epitomized many Indians’ anxieties about the BJP.

In a striking departure from precedent, Modi also quelled concerns in India’s neighborhood about his rise by inviting the heads of government of India’s seven South Asian neighbors, as well as that of Mauritius (the Indian Ocean republic whose population is 63 percent Indian), to his swearing-in. India’s prime ministers have never enjoyed lavish inaugurations like American presidents, traditionally assuming office after sparsely attended and low-key oath-takings behind closed doors. Modi converted this routine into a grand, opulent 4,000-guest ceremony on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, and invited his foreign guests to attend the televised coronation.

The gesture instantly disarmed many across the borders who had been alarmed by his combative rhetoric during the campaign, in which he had promised robust action on the borders, assailed Pakistani sponsorship of terrorism, and warned some 30 million Bangladeshi illegal immigrants in India that they should be prepared to pack their backs on the day of his victory. His cordial welcome to, and subsequent bilateral meetings with, the leaders of these and other neighboring countries reassured them that the Modi government would not feel obliged to live up to the belligerence of the Modi campaign.

So does this all add up to a Modi 2.0, a very different figure in government from the ogre some of us had feared and demonized for years? It is still too early to tell, but the initial signs are encouraging. Prime Minister Modi would hardly be the first opposition leader to temper his views and conduct once in office, but there seems to be something more fundamental involved here. An ambitious man, Modi appears to realize that if he wants to make a success of his government, he will have to lead the nation from the center and not from the extreme right, where he had built his base in the BJP.

His overwhelming majority, won on the back of a highly personalized campaign that led many to vote for Modi rather than for the BJP, has also liberated him from the party’s and his own past positions. Just as he remade himself from a hate-figure into an avatar of modernity and progress, he is seeking to remake the BJP from a vehicle of Hindu chauvinism to a natural party of governance. This will mean a change in both language and tone, as he has demonstrated from day one.

IN PICTURES: India: inside the world's largest democracy

For an opposition member of parliament like myself, it would be churlish not to acknowledge Modi 2.0’s inclusive outreach and to welcome his more conciliatory statements and actions. The moment he says or does something divisive or sectarian in the Modi 1.0 mold, however, we will resist him robustly. India’s people, and its pluralist democracy, deserve no less.

Shashi Tharoor is a member of India’s parliament, and a former minister of state for external affairs.

16th Lok Sabha starts with rise of Modi fans in Congress ranks | Firstpost

 

[IndoUS]

Does Bobby Jindal have a good enough chance to be republican candidate for presidency?

Not really, mainly because there are others like Rubio who can garner support in the Latino community which is growing by leaps and bounds in terms of population.

 

[JanjaWeed]

I meant people of the caliber of those managers. These guys literally stole the thunder from George Bush Sr., and McCain - one a sitting President and the other a seasoned "maverick" politician, sometimes liked by the Democrats!!

Sorry for butting in..couldn't resist. I think Sarah palin played an equally important role in McCain's downfall!

 

[wolfschanzze]

I know you dont believe in sugar coating.
So from your post I've gathered that US would seal its lips if it gets plum business offers in India.
And that nothing is actually "wrong" between India and RUSSIA as long as they get the order for 197 light helicopters....am I reading it right?
Aaahhh it all trickles down to money finally,isnt it??

Everything comes down to money!Isn't it?
"An army marches on it's stomach".-Napoleon Bonaparte, Likewise a Nation too marches on it's stomach.Priorities come first,you address them you become their best,don't you go down with the rest.

 

[wolfschanzze]

Mamata Banerjee FTW.

That will be his nightmare fetish

 

[Shabaz Sharif]

He is a pakistani poster @shan.

First of all i would rather kill my self then come up being Bharoti even on forum. And i only use 1 id at a time. Don't accuse me of racism next time. I am against racists of North Indians against my brother dravidians of south.

 

[Arya Desa]

Mamata Banerjee FTW.

mama cita.

 

[Bang Galore]

Bobby Jindal has got the chops to run effectively, if he carefully plays the field these next few months. And with a good campaign manager with a caliber of the likes of James Carville or even David Axelrod or David Plouffe, there's a pretty good chance of him getting there!! Of course the Clintons have the most formidable political machinery on their side.

I'm not sure, he isn't a great speaker & I think Americans are a little tired of people of colour running for the President. In any case Jindal will get murdered on TV for his "exorcism" past . Don't think it will happen.

 

[queerbait]

Of two co-travellers who surprised the writer with their graciousness, 24 years ago
It was the summer of 1990. As Indian Railway (Traffic) Service probationers, my friend and I travelled by train from Lucknow to Delhi. Two MPs were also travelling in the same bogie. That was fine, but the behaviour of some 12 people who were travelling with them without reservation was terrifying. They forced us to vacate our reserved berths and sit on the luggage, and passed obscene and abusive comments. We cowered in fright and squirmed with rage. It was a harrowing night in the company of an unruly battalion; we were on edge, on the thin line between honour and dishonour. All other passengers seemed to have vanished, along with the Travelling Ticket Examiner.

We reached Delhi the next morning without being physically harmed by the goons, though we were emotionally wrecked. My friend was so traumatised she decided to skip the next phase of training in Ahmedabad and stayed back in Delhi. I decided to carry on since another batchmate was joining me. (She is Utpalparna Hazarika, now Executive Director, Railway Board.) We boarded an overnight train to Gujarat’s capital, this time without reservations as there wasn’t enough time to arrange for them. We had been wait-listed.

We met the TTE of the first class bogie, and told him how we had to get to Ahmedabad. The train was heavily booked, but he politely led us to a coupe to sit as he tried to help us. I looked at the two potential co-travellers, two politicians, as could be discerned from their white khadi attire, and panicked. “They’re decent people, regular travellers on this route, nothing to worry,” the TTE assured us. One of them was in his mid-forties with a normal, affectionate face, and the other in his late-thirties with a warm but somewhat impervious expression. They readily made space for us by almost squeezing themselves to one corner.

They introduced themselves: two BJP leaders from Gujarat. The names were told but quickly forgotten as names of co-passengers were inconsequential at that moment. We also introduced ourselves, two Railway service probationers from Assam. The conversation turned to different topics, particularly in the areas of History and the Polity. My friend, a post-graduate in History from Delhi University and very intelligent, took part. I too chipped in. The discussion veered around to the formation of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League.

The senior one was an enthusiastic participant. The younger one mostly remained quiet, but his body language conveyed his total mental involvement in what was being discussed, though he hardly contributed. Then I mentioned Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s death, why it was still considered a mystery by many. He suddenly asked: “How do you know about Syama Prasad Mookerjee?” I had to tell him that when my father was a post-graduate student in Calcutta University, as its Vice-Chancellor he had arranged a scholarship for the young man from Assam. My father often reminisced about that and regretted his untimely death [in June 1953 at the age of 51].

The younger man then almost looked away and spoke in a hushed tone almost to himself: “It’s good they know so many things ...”

Suddenly the senior man proposed: “Why don’t you join our party in Gujarat?” We both laughed it off, saying we were not from Gujarat. The younger man then forcefully interjected: “So what? We don’t have any problem on that. We welcome talent in our State.” I could see a sudden spark in his calm demeanour.

The food arrived, four vegetarian thalis. We ate in silence. When the pantry-car manager came to take the payment, the younger man paid for all of us. I muttered a feeble ‘thank you’, but he almost dismissed that as something utterly trivial. I observed at that moment that he had a different kind of glow in his eyes, which one could hardly miss. He rarely spoke, mostly listened.

The TTE then came and informed us the train was packed and he couldn’t arrange berths for us. Both men immediately stood up and said: “It’s okay, we’ll manage.” They swiftly spread a cloth on the floor and went to sleep, while we occupied the berths.

What a contrast! The previous night we had felt very insecure travelling with a bunch of politicians, and here we were travelling with two politicians in a coupe, with no fear.

The next morning, when the train neared Ahmedabad, both of them asked us about our lodging arrangements in the city. The senior one told us that in case of any problem, the doors of his house were open for us. There was some kind of genuine concern in the voice or the facial contours of the otherwise apparently inscrutable younger one, and he told us: “I’m like a nomad, I don’t have a proper home to invite you but you can accept his offer of safe shelter in this new place.”

We thanked them for that invitation and assured them that accommodation was not going to be a problem for us.

Before the train came to a stop, I pulled out my diary and asked them for their names again. I didn’t want to forget the names of two large-hearted fellow passengers who almost forced me to revise my opinion about politicians in general. I scribbled down the names quickly as the train was about to stop: Shankersinh Vaghela and Narendra Modi.

I wrote on this episode in an Assamese newspaper in 1995. It was a tribute to two unknown politicians from Gujarat for giving up their comfort ungrudgingly for the sake of two bens from Assam. When I wrote that, I didn’t have the faintest idea that these two people were going to become so prominent, or that I would hear more about them later. When Mr. Vaghela became Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1996, I was glad. When Mr. Modi took office as Chief Minister in 2001, I felt elated. (A few months later, another Assamese daily reproduced my 1995 piece.) And now, he is the Prime Minister of India.

Every time I see him on TV, I remember that warm meal, that gentle courtesy, caring and sense of security that we got that night far from home in a train, and bow my head.

A train journey and two names to remember - The Hindu

When you talk about giving respect to a women, this is the respect that you should give, vacating their own seats for the women.

 

[Developereo]

The Indians -- overt and covert -- are pumping for Bobby JIndal, proving once again that their first loyalty is to their ethnicity.

The fact is that Jindal is a dud with ZERO chance for winning the nomination, let alone the presidency.

My bet is that it will be Jeb Bush v/s Hillary, and Bush will win.

 

[jaunty]

Modi was unfortunate collateral in Bush's attempt to bend over backwards to show that he wasn't anti-Muslim in the wake of Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is completely true. The Bush administration underestimated Modi's worth. To be fair, not many of us would have guessed that Modi would go on to become the PM of India as late as 2010-11. That combined with the constant lobbying from the Congress govt in India and a section of the "communist" intelligentsia (there are people who actually went to Washington DC from India to lobby against his visa approval, these people btw hate USA otherwise) resulted in that.