The Daily Background

You might know that the President is visiting India for his first time. What you might not know, is that his trip has already been a complete and utter failure.

New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a detailed statement to both Houses of Parliament on Monday, said India “cannot accept safeguards on our indigenous fast breeder programme” and expressed pride in “the tremendous work of our nuclear scientists and the Department of Atomic Energy in mastering the complete nuclear fuel cycle”. He questioned the Americans for not fulfilling their end of the bargain by supplying fuel for Tarapur and resolving the nature of the safeguards to be applied to the civilian nuclear facilities as promised.

Full article.

Meanwhile, the President is afraid to even visit Indian parliament (fearing he will be boo’d off the floor if he tries to address them). Demonstrators are protesting as well (up to 50,000 may attend an upcoming rally), as Associated Press reports:

Demonstrators in India shouted “Death to America!” and burned effigies of
President Bush on Tuesday, demanding that he be barred from visiting the country this week.

[…]
“Bush is terrorist No. 1, and it is an insult to Indian Muslims that he is coming to India as a guest of the government,” said Mohammed Saeed Noori of the Bombay-based Muslim organization Raza Academy. “Bush first destroyed Afghanistan, then Iraq. He should be stopped from entering India.”

Further, Reuters is reporting that the biggest concern is security:

About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and U.S. marines using helicopters, bomb detectors and electronic jammers will protect President George W. Bush during his visit to India this week, officials said on Monday.

The personnel would be part of a three-ring security cordon around the U.S. president and First Lady Laura Bush who are due to arrive in New Delhi for their maiden visit to the subcontinent on Wednesday, they said.

The New York Times says that due to security concerns, the President’s trip will be fairly neutered:

When President Bill Clinton went to India six years ago, he danced to folk music with women in a rural Rajasthani village, ate bowls of black lentil stew at a posh restaurant in New Delhi, and spotted a rare Bengal tiger at a wildlife reserve south of Jaipur. He was cheered wildly in India’s Parliament.

President Bush’s visit to the world’s second most populous nation will likely be less entertaining visually; Mr. Bush, after all, isn’t even planning to visit the Taj Mahal, let alone address India’s legislature, which both nations have decided is too raucous to risk an appearance by this president.

Yeah well. We already know this President isn’t very good at diplomacy. Looks like he isn’t really going to try much either. Some people are saying that his trip is motivated by his desire to escape poor poll ratings and widespread disapproval domestically. Bloomberg reports that the Administration has “scaled back” their expectations of the trip:

President George W. Bush is scaling back his expectations for signing a nuclear-technology accord with India this week that would cement U.S. relations with a rising global power and ease pressure on world energy supplies.

[…]
Administration aides say there is still a remote chance of a deal this week.

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